Consistency of children's hemodynamic responses to laboratory stressors.

Hemodynamic responses to three standard laboratory stressors (i.e., postural change, video game, forehead cold) were evaluated in 341 children (170 males) who had a mean age of 11.2 +/- 2.6 years. Inter-task consistency was evaluated for five physiological parameters for all stressor pairings. Evidence of consistency in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output, and total peripheral resistance responses to all three stressors was observed. The highest and most consistent correlations across stressors were observed for cardiac output and total peripheral resistance responses. The need for clarification in the categorization of laboratory stressors used to measure reactivity is discussed.