Hemodynamic and endocrine effects of mental stress in untreated borderline hypertension.

Mental arithmetic and mirror tracing were compared in 40 untreated patients with borderline hypertension, tested in random sequence in standardized protocols. Both tasks significantly increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac index, plasma renin, and decreased peripheral resistance. Mental arithmetic also increased cholesterol, triglycerides and HDL; plasma catecholamines were not changed significantly. Lipid changes were correlated with blood pressure changes. These methods will be useful in exploring the relationships between hemodynamic reactivity to stress, and the presence and progression of atherosclerosis, as well as testing the effects of antihypertensive drugs on stress-induced changes that may influence atherosclerotic complications of hypertension.