Abstract P059: Reproducibility of Blood Pressure Response to Cold Pressor Test: the GenSalt Study

Abstract

Higher blood pressure (BP) response to cold pressor test (CPT) is associated with increased risk of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. However, it is unknown whether BP response to CPT is a stable and reproducible trait. We repeated the CPT among 568 Han Chinese who participated in the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Salt Sensitivity (GenSalt) four years after the original study. The same CPT protocol was applied in the original and repeated studies. BP was measured prior to and at 0, 1, 2, and 4 minutes after the participants immersed their hand in ice water (3 o C to 5 o C) for 1 minute using a standard mercury sphygmomanometer. On average, study participants were 39.0 years old and 54.0% of them were male. The mean body mass index was 23.6 kg/m 2 , systolic BP was 117.8 mmHg, and diastolic BP was 74.5 mmHg at baseline among study participants. The mean (standard deviation) of systolic BP responses at time 0 and 1 minutes, maximum responses, and area-under-the-curve during CPT were 13.3 (10.1), 4.2 (6.0), 13.6 (9.8) and 10.8 (17.6) mmHg in the original study and 11.1 (9.5), 4.1 (6.0), 11.7 (8.9), and 10.1 (17.1) mmHg in the repeated study. BP responses in the original and repeated studies were highly correlated. For example, the correlation coefficients for systolic BP responses to CPT were 0.4137 at time 0 minute, 0.3711 at time 1 minute, 0.4221 for the maximum responses, and 0.3641 for area-under-the-curve during CPT (all p<0.0001). These data indicate that BP response to CPT is a stable and reproducible trait. Furthermore, BP responses to CPT may be useful for identifying individuals at high risk for hypertension.