High Blood Pressure Factors Research Articles

Arterial plasma norepinephrine correlates to blood pressure in middle-aged men with sustained essential hypertension

Increased plasma catecholamine levels assessed from the venous blood have been found in a number of studies of younger patients with essential hypertension, but hypertensive-normotensive differences could not easily be demonstrated in subjects above 40 years of age. For several reasons, measurement of arterial plasma catecholamines may be a more sensitive tool for the detection of hypertensive-normotensive differences. The present study therefore aimed at examining both venous and arterial plasma catecholamines in a group of white men, all 50 years of age, with never-treated, established essential hypertension ( n = 61, blood pressure 165 ± 2 112 ± 1 mm Hg , means ± SE) and comparing them with a similar group of normotensive men ( n = 51, blood pressure 128 ± 1 85 ± 1 mm Hg ). Arterial and venous plasma epinephrine, heart rate, and body weight were significantly elevated in the hypertensive group. Plasma norepinephrine was similar between the groups in the venous blood, whereas in the arterial blood the values in hypertensive subjects were moderately, but significantly increased ( p < 0.03). However, stepwise multiple regression analysis suggested arterial plasma norepinephrine was the only significant independent explanatory variable of raised blood pressure in the hypertensive group ( r = 0.51, t = 4.05, p = 0.0002). Such a relationship was not found in the normotensive group. Thus based on measurements in arterial blood, we conclude that plasma norepinephrine, representing sympathetic tone, may be an important pathogenetic factor for high blood pressure in middle-aged men with established hypertension.

Is increased plasma viscosity a risk factor for high blood pressure?

Data from several epidemiologic studies have suggested that, among other variables, hematocrit and fibrinogen may constitute risk factors for high blood pressure. As part of a population survey for cardiovascular risk factors, plasma viscosity and hemoglobin were measured. Blood pressure was determined under standardized conditions according to the recommendations of the AHA. A two-stage age-sex-stratified cluster sample of 5,312 persons, aged twenty-five to sixty-four years, was selected from a mixed urban/rural target population of 282,279 (total population approximately 533,000). A net response of 79.3% was achieved. Multiple logistic regression analyses including plasma viscosity, hemoglobin, body mass index, alcohol consumption, smoking behavior, and total serum cholesterol as independent variables were run controlling for both age and sex. Plasma viscosity appeared as a significant main effect in all analyses and demonstrated the strongest association with high blood pressure next to body mass index. Whether this association implies a causal relationship cannot be answered from cross-sectional data. However, even if plasma hyperviscosity represents a secondary phenomenon in hypertension, it might be of prognostic relevance. There is evidence that increased plasma viscosity may contribute to myocardial hypertrophy. Therefore hypertensives with impaired blood fluidity might constitute a subgroup at particular risk for cardiovascular complications. When antihypertensive drugs are selected, their influence on blood viscosity should be taken into account.

Reducing high blood cholesterol levels: Recommendations from the national cholesterol education program

Modification of risk factors is the major clinical and public health approach to the prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD). To coordinate national efforts to reduce the three major modifiable CHD risk factors of high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and high blood cholesterol, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has established three educational programs: the National High Blood Pressure Education Program, the NHLBI Smoking Education Program, and the National Cholesterol Education Program. This article focuses on the most recent of these efforts, the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP). A perspective of the concepts and basis of this effort is afforded by a brief description of the National Cholesterol Education Program's predecessor, the National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP).

Overview: toward a dysregulation hypothesis of depression.

The authors suggest that the activity of neurotransmitter systems in the affective disorders and related psychiatric syndromes may be better understood as a reflection of a relative failure in their regulation, rather than as simple increases or decreases in their activity. A model organized around the concept of "dysregulation" posits that persistent impairment in one or more neurotransmitter homeostatic regulatory mechanisms confers a trait vulnerability to unstable or erratic neurotransmitter output. Evidence from clinical and animal model studies for dysregulation of the noradrenergic system in depression is examined with respect to criteria generated by such a general model, and a specific configuration of noradrenergic dysregulation in some forms of depression is proposed.

Alcohol consumption as a risk factor for high blood pressure. Munich Blood Pressure Study.

The Munich Blood Pressure Study (MBS), a 1980-81 cross-sectional study (with follow-up) of a random sample of 3198 Munich citizens aged 30-69 years (response rate 69%), revealed hypertensive blood pressure (BP) values in 17.7% of men and 10.7% of women (WHO criteria). One of the main goals of the MBS was to search for social, behavioral, and environmental risk factors for hypertension. The relationship between BP and five possible risk factors--alcohol consumption (g/day), cigarette smoking, oral contraceptive use, years of education, obesity (BMI)--has been examined. The major emphasis of this report is the relationship of alcohol consumption to BP. Multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were run controlling for both age and sex. All second- and third-order interactions between the independent variables were tested during a backward-stepping procedure. Alcohol consumption appeared as a significant main effect in many of the analyses. The coefficient of the alcohol variable ranged from 0.02 to 0.06 for men and women in the separate linear regression analyses for systolic and diastolic BP. Thus, for example, according to the model, the daily consumption of 1 liter of beer (40 g alcohol) may cause an increase in diastolic BP in women of 2.4 mm Hg.