The neuropeptide galanin (GAL) is localized in the peripheral and central nervous systems as well as in the adrenal medulla where it coexists with catecholamines. We evaluated the changes in GAL plasma levels as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressures and in the plasma levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine ...

Heat-shock proteins protect cells from damage but are also often the target of immune responses in inflammation and may therefore both induce and perpetuate the chronic inflammation characterizing atherosclerosis. Hypertension is a well-established risk factor for atherosclerosis, and recently, borderline hypertension also has been related to atherosclerosis. The present study ...

The question of psychophysiological reactivity of borderline hypertensives is still controversial. METHODS: Young males with borderline blood pressure levels and normotensive controls were recruited during a routine examination. Samples of study I comprised 19 subjects, samples of study II 18 subjects. Two stressors were presented (distressing movie, mental arithmetic), each ...

Arterial compliance and distensibility, measured by non-invasive and specific techniques, give us information on the cardiovascular alterations occurring in pathophysiological conditions. Recently, it has been observed that familial hypertension is characterized by a slight but significant increase of 24-hour blood pressure and, despite this, by normal arterial function. On the ...

We performed the present studies to determine whether a proximal renal tubular dopamine D1-like receptor defect exists in human essential hypertension. Twenty-four subjects were studied (13 normotensive and 11 hypertensive) in a randomized, double-blind, vehicle-controlled study using fenoldopam, a selective D1-like receptor agonist. Subjects were studied in sodium metabolic balance ...

We investigated whether the sex of hypertensive parents mediates determination of blood pressure in their normotensive offspring. We analyzed medical checkup data from 7279 Japanese university students. Six hundred and forty-one students had one hypertensive parent with or without hypertensive grandparents, and 609 of these were available for the present ...

We investigated the usefulness of angiotensin II (AT II)-induced hypertensive chemotherapy for adenocarcinoma of the ovary, which was induced with dimethylbenzantracene (DMBA) in rats. Ovaries with DMBA-induced cancer had poor blood flow, while normal ovaries had abundant brood flow when blood pressure was normal. The brood flow of the normal ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate a possible role for mutations of the epithelial sodium channel in patients with essential hypertension. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study screening essential hypertension patients and normotensive controls for the presence of a genetic abnormality in the epithelial sodium channel beta-subunit in the Japanese population. SETTING: An institutional teaching ...

Increased nociceptive thresholds have been reported in hypertensive rats and humans, and also in normotensive humans at risk for developing hypertension by virtue of elevated resting blood pressure levels or a family history of hypertension. Because risk for hypertension may be more accurately predicted by a combination of risk factors, ...

Few studies have quantified the effect of hypertension on survival in the hemodialysis population. We report the effect of hypertension on 1-year survival in 649 hemodialysis patients (89% black). In univariate analysis, hypertension was associated with improved 1-year survival (relative risk [RR], 0.48; P = 0.002 compared with normotensive patients). ...

Brainstem auditory evoked potential responses (BAEPs) were recorded from CZ-A1 and CZ-A2 scalp regions in 23 hypertensive and 14 normotensive subjects. Hypertension was graded depending upon the extent of raised blood pressure. BAEPs in patients of grade I and II hypertension did not show any change when compared to normotensive ...

BACKGROUND: Non-modulating hypertensives are a subset of sodium-sensitive hypertensives characterized by a failure to modulate renal, vascular and adrenal glomerulosa responsivenesses to angiotensin II appropriately. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the plasma renin activity (PRA) and urinary kallikrein-like activity (Ku) under different sodium conditions in essential hypertensive patients and in the modulating ...

Control of hypertension, labile or fixed, systolic or diastolic, at any age, in either sex appears to be central to prevention of atherothrombotic brain infarction (ABI). Prospectively, hypertension proved the most common and potent precursor of ABI's. Its contribution was direct and could not be attributed to factors related both ...

Our primary aim in the present study was to investigate the association between blood pressure measured in the laboratory and in the ambulatory state in a group of middle-aged borderline hypertensive men and age-matched normotensive control subjects. In addition, we examined the relation between stress-induced blood pressure measurements and left ...

BACKGROUND: The percentage of patients with office or white-coat hypertension has been reported in international studies to be 20-30% of the hypertensive population. These patients can be identified and distinguished from patients with established hypertension by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) or self-measurement. There is still no satisfactory explanation for ...

Abnormalities of the arterial pulse waveform reflect changes in cardiovascular structure and function. These abnormalities may occur early in the course of essential hypertension, even before the onset of blood pressure elevation. Previous studies of cardiovascular structure and function have relied on invasive intra-arterial cannulation to obtain the arterial pulse ...

Arterial hypertension is not only a haemodynamic abnormality, but it is associated with several metabolic and humoral changes. Heredity appears to be participating in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension (EH). We studied whether some metabolic, humoral and haemodynamic changes could be detected in genetically predisposed normotensive sons of hypertensive families ...

Despite the importance of magnesium in essential hypertension, few data are available on the ionized intracellular concentration of this ion. We therefore studied intralymphocyte free intracellular magnesium (Mgi) in 32 untreated essential hypertensive subjects and 27 normotensive control subjects by means of a fluorimetric technique based on the use of ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical implications of mild white coat hypertension (WCH). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We studied 102 subjects (54 men, 48 women), 51 of whom were normotensive and 51 slightly hypertensive. None had ever received antihypertensive therapy. An ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) record (Accutracker II), a 24-h electrocardiogram and ...

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether the extent of autonomic activation following brain infarction differs between hypertensive and normotensive humans, and to investigate the role of the insular cortex for this sympathetic activation. DESIGN: Prospective, hospital-based study. SETTING: Department of Neurology of a university medical center. SUBJECTS: Forty-two patients with essential hypertension ...

In the present study we evaluated the effect of intravenous metoclopramide on blood pressure in normotensive (untrained, football players, runners) and hypertensive subjects. There was a decrease in blood pressure only observed in untrained female subjects and this was greater in hypertensive subjects. In football players and runners the decrease ...

The aim of this study was the evaluation of the relationships among hyperinsulinemia, a family history of hypertension, and essential hypertension. Insulin and C-peptide responses to an oral glucose load were studied in 175 lean normotensives (N) and untreated hypertensives (H) with (F+) and without (F-) a family history of ...

Thirty-nine (39) middle-aged subjects with mild to moderate hypertension (WHO stages I-II) and 35 healthy normotensive controls from a community sample participated in this psychophysiological study, the aim of which was to study whether the electrodermal lability as an indicator of increased sympathetic activity is related to hypertension. Resting blood ...

Observations in animals and humans show that pain sensitivity might be lower (and pain tolerance higher) in hypertensive as compared to normotensive subjects. One hypothesis, derived from experimental studies, assumes that enhanced activation of baroreceptors leads to an enhanced central inhibition. A central hypothesis assumes changes in the central (endogenous) ...

To investigate if the response of the contralateral artery during coronary angioplasty (PTCA) is different in hypertensive than in normotensive patients and whether this response is related to plasma levels of endothelin-1 (ET-1). We examined the change in ET-1 plasma levels and the reactivity of the left circumflex artery (LCx) ...

Recent research suggests that resting blood pressure is inversely related to pain sensitivity, even among normotensives; however, most of these studies have included only male participants. To determine whether this hypoalgesic effect of blood pressure was also present in females, we investigated thermal and ischemic pain responses in a group ...

To verify the effect of a pressure load on the production of Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF1) in essential hypertensives, we studied 15 patients and 8 normotensive controls before and during orthostatism. Upright standing was characterized both in normals and in hypertensives by significant higher rate-pressure product [RPP = systolic ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether feelings of exhaustion and emotional distress reflecting chronic perceived stress contribute to a pattern of pituitary and adrenocortical responses that would in turn be able to distinguish borderline hypertensives from normotensive controls. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING: Helsinki University Central Hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-one middle-aged, male borderline ...

Low heart rate (HR) variability is a risk factor for cardiac mortality in various patient populations, but it has not been well established whether patients with long-standing hypertension have abnormalities in the autonomic modulation of HR. Time and frequency domain measures of HR variability were compared in randomly selected, age-matched ...

The fibrinolytic system is thought to be impaired in older hypertensive adults, thus contributing to the elevated risk of atherothrombosis, stroke, and acute myocardial infarction in this population. However, studies that have examined the fibrinolytic system in hypertensive individuals have failed to control for the confounding effects of other metabolic ...

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that long-term lead accumulation, as reflected by levels of lead in bone (as opposed to blood which reflects recent lead exposure), is associated with an increased odds of developing hypertension. DESIGN: Case-control study of participants in the Veterans Administration (now Department of Veterans Affairs) Normative ...

To determine if parental hypertension is associated with proteinuria in offspring with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), 438 diabetic Pima Indians (172 men, 266 women) aged 20 years or more and both of their parents were examined. Hypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure 140 mm Hg or more, diastolic ...

OBJECTIVES: To identify factors predisposing subjects to the development of stable hypertension and to estimate their relative importance in 70 young patients with borderline hypertension monitored for 10 years. DESIGN: Longitudinal evaluation of the incidence of stable hypertension [diastolic blood pressure (DBP) > 95 mmHg]. METHODS: Patients were examined at ...

AIM: The purpose of the study was to investigate lipoprotein (a) (Lp(a)) levels and apolipoprotein (a) (apo(a)) phenotypes, and their relationship with a family history of coronary heart disease (CHD) in patients with essential hypertension (EH). METHODS: One hundred and eight newly diagnosed patients with mild to moderate EH and ...

BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of essential hypertension is still uncertain, but genetic factors and the sympathetic nervous system are likely to be involved. Sympathetic nerve activity and hormonal circulatory control mechanisms, however, are affected by blood pressure itself. Hence, early functional changes are best investigated in normotensive subjects at risk to ...

To determine whether offspring of hypertensives show enhanced sympathetic nervous system activity, we evaluated several indices of sympathoadrenal activation and cardiovascular responsiveness to behavioral stimuli among 90 normotensive, young adult men having either one or two hypertensive parents (PH+(-), PH++) or normotensive parents only (PH--) (n = 30/group). Measurements included ...

The relationship between resting levels of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSA) and blood pressure is a matter of controversy. Body weight has recently been identified as an independent determinant of muscle sympathetic discharge, which may have influenced previous studies focused on MSA and mechanisms of hypertension. In the present study, ...

Evaluation of high blood pressure would be greatly facilitated by a standardized test procedure that could enable comparable and reproducible blood pressure determinations to be made. It would also be useful to have a standardized method for monitoring sympathetic activity, so that the occurrence and magnitude of inordinate stress responses ...

The aim of this study was to establish the existence of primary acromegalic cardiomyopathy different from the cardiovascular complications often associated with acromegaly. Thirty-four acromegalic patients, referred to our non-invasive laboratory and divided into two groups on the basis of the presence of hypertension, underwent echocardiographic studies. A control group ...

This study evaluates prospectively the relationship between impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and blood pressure. From a population of 1376 men and women aged 40-59 years, all those with IGT (n = 54) plus 133 age- weight- and sex-matched normoglycaemic control subjects were selected after excluding treated hypertensive patients. Blood pressure, ...

A relationship between abdominal obesity and hypertension is well established. In search for an early-onset defect in adipocyte function linking these two conditions, we compared catecholamine sensitivity in subcutaneous abdominal fat cells with 24-hour systolic, mean arterial and diastolic blood pressure in 16 healthy, normotensive subjects. Clear inter-individual variations in ...

OBJECTIVES: To define whether a diurnal rhythm of peripheral resistance exists in normotensive and hypertensive subjects, has any relationship with that of blood pressure and differs in dipper and non-dipper hypertensives. DESIGN AND METHODS: Forty-three subjects (13 normotensives and 30 mild-to-moderate essential hypertensives) confined for 24 h to bed were ...

Sixty-four patients with acromegaly were retrospectively analyzed to study the incidence and cause of hypertension in acromegaly. WHO criteria indicate that 37.5% patients with acromegaly have hypertension. The blood pressure was positively correlated with age, the insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and serum sodium (Na) concentration. In addition, IGF-I and ...

OBJECTIVE: To study blood pressure and antihypertensive drug treatment in subjects with contrasting family histories of hypertension. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We grouped 520 offspring examined in 1990 (mean +/- SD age 36 +/- 7 years) according to their parents' blood pressure screened in 1963-1964 as offspring of two normotensive (systolic/diastolic ...

Hypertension risk may be associated with increased pressor response to mental stress. However, studies using family history as a predictor of reactivity have obtained mixed results. We assessed cardiovascular responses to mental arithmetic stress (a 5-min serial subtraction task) in male medical students (n = 220) at three levels of ...

OBJECTIVES: This study was undertaken to assess the influence of the fluid volume state on cardiac adaptation to hypertension. BACKGROUND: Left ventricular hypertrophy is an important predictor of hypertensive complications. We analyzed volume status and its impact on cardiac structural changes in early hypertension. METHODS: In 33 normotensive subjects, 40 ...

OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship of urinary albumin excretion to ambulatory blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors in borderline to mild hypertension. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We studied 779 patients with borderline to mild hypertension (mean +/- SEM age 33 +/- 0.3 years; mean +/- SEM office blood pressure 146 ...

Sixty uncomplicated hypertensive patients (30 stable and 30 borderline) were studied, by strain gauge plethysmography, in comparison with 25 normotensive subjects, in order to evaluate the arterial hemodynamics of the lower limbs in essential hypertension and to verify the different pattern in borderline and in stable hypertensives. Resting blood flow, ...

Ischemic pain was examined in adult males with and without a parental history of hypertension. Blood pressure and heart rate were recorded during baseline, cold pressor, and ischemia. Repeated pain ratings were obtained during cold pressor and ischemia, and the McGill Pain Questionnaire was completed after each stressor. A median ...

There is circumstantial evidence that disturbances of calcium metabolism are implicated in primary hypertension. From a large number of observational epidemiological studies, data have shown that a low dietary calcium intake increases the risk for high blood pressure. There is no general sensitivity for the effects of inadequate calcium intake, ...