Cardiovascular responsivity to stress in adolescents with and without persistently elevated blood pressure

Objectives The goal of this study was to compare the cardiovascular respons es to behavioural stressors of three groups of adolescents who differed in blood pressure status across assessments. Design Casual blood pressure of adolescents who were identified as having e levated blood pressure during a school screen was re-evaluated in the labor atory, The adolescents were classified into two groups: (i) those with cons istently elevated blood pressure across school and laboratory assessments a nd (i) those with labile blood pressure whose blood pressure in the laborat ory was below 130/80 mmHg, A comparison group of adolescents with consisten tly normal blood pressure was also included. Methods Cardiovascular parameters were assessed during rest and during two behavioural stressors, the evaluated speaking task and the mirror tracing t ask, Results Adolescents with elevated blood pressure were more vascularly respo nsive across stressors than adolescents with labile blood pressure, who, in turn, were more reactive than adolescents with normal blood pressure, Conclusions These results suggest that vascular reactivity to behavioural s tressors may be useful in predicting risk of hypertension because of its se nsitivity in distinguishing adolescents with consistently elevated blood pr essure from those with labile blood pressure and those with normal blood pr essure. (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.