PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS AND MYOCARDIAL PERFUSION IN CORONARY-DISEASE PATIENTS AND HEALTHY CONTROLS

This study examined the effect of two different psychological stressor s on regional cardiac perfusion in six men with coronary heart disease (CHD) and nine healthy controls. Subjects recalled an anger experienc e and an anger plus helpless (i.e., Desperation Recall Task) experienc e during positron emission tomography (PET), Emotional reactivity, blo od pressure, and heart rate were also assessed. Experimental manipulat ions generated significant emotional and cardiovascular reactivity. Ca rdiac perfusion to diseased myocardial segments failed to show any sig nificant differences between CHD patients' diseased segments and contr ols' healthy segments for the Anger Recall task or the Desperation Rec all Task. Results failed to confirm previous findings of coronary arte ry constriction while reliving an angry experience, yet are consistent with other studies utilizing mental arithmetic. Vasoactive medication use, sample size, and perfusion variability may have contributed to t hese findings. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.