Cardiovascular response to mental and physical tasks as predictors of ambulatory measurements

Cardiovascular responsiveness in the laboratory and in the field was investigated in male students, 40 with borderline hypertensive blood pressure (SBP > 140mmHg and/or DBP > 90mmHg), 17 with mildly elevated blood pressure, and 41 with normotensive blood pressure. The behavioral tests and physically demanding tasks in the laboratory included mental arithmetic, free speech condition, the Cold Pressor Test, upright tilt, climbing stairs, and ergometer exercise. Subsequently, subjects participated in a 24-hour psychophysiological ambulatory monitoring. Borderline hypertensive and normotensive subjects differed in baseline, task, and recovery levels of SBP, DBP, and HR. A laboratory-field comparison showed that some laboratory tasks substantially predicted average daytime blood pressure and heart rate. Measures that were obtained during upright tilt and the stairs test were found to explain a higher portion of criterion variance than psychological tasks, e.g., mental arithmetic. The elevated heart rate (baseline and task level) that was evident in borderline hypertensive subjects in the laboratory disappeared during ambulatory monitoring. This finding suggests differential adaptations to the laboratory. unknown unknown