The response of blood pressure, heart rate and plasma catecholamines to a mental arithmetic and a cold pressor test was studied in 70 patients with mild essential hypertension and in 41 age- and sex-matched normotensives. Each group consisted of three prospectively stratified age classes: 20ndash;29, 30ndash;39 and 40ndash;55 years. During mental arithmetic, hypertensives showed only a higher increment of systolic blood pressure (plusmn;17ndash;19percnt;) than normotensives (plusmn;12ndash;15percnt;). Plasma noradrenaline in the youngest normotensives (20ndash;29 years) showed a small but significant decrease (ndash;0.20 plusmn; 0.07nmol/l) whereas the youngest hypertensives showed a small but significant increase of plasma noradrenaline (plusmn;0.14 plusmn; 0.04nmol/l). The difference between both groups was highly significant (P 0.001). In the two older age classes there was no difference in plasma noradrenaline response between normo- and hypertensives. During the cold pressor test both the cardiovascular and plasma noradrenaline response were of the same magnitude in normo- and hypertensives. These data reinforce the concept that the increased sympathetic reactivity to mental stress in hypertensives may be restricted to the younger age.
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