Abstract
Cold pressure test (CPT) and mental stress test (MST) are distinct tests usually leading to blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) increase. Their patterns in multiple sclerosis (MS) are still unknown. This study assessed cardiovascular reactivity to MST and CPT in patients with MS and controls. MST was performed with Stroop test card. CPT was performed with cold stimulus. The BP and HR were digitally recorded at rest and test phases. The delta (Δ) and the variance of BP and HR were compared between patients and controls. Patients with MS had lower Δ of diastolic BP and HR induced by MST than controls. There were no differences between patients and controls with CPT. The reduced autonomic reactivity to MST but not with CPT suggests that specific central nervous system pathways involved in MST may be responsible for autonomic findings in MS.
References
Senaratne MPJ, Carroll D, Warren KGW et al (1984) Evidence for cardiovascular autonomic nerve dysfunction in multiple sclerosis. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 47:947–952
Monge-Argilés JA, Palacios-Ortega F, Vila-Sobrino JA et al (1998) Heart rate variability in multiple sclerosis during a stable phase. Acta Neurol Scand 97:86–92
Nasseri K, Uitdehaag BMJ, Walderveen MAA et al (1999) Cardiovascular autonomic function in patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis: a new surrogate marker of disease evolution? Eur J Neurol 6:29–33
Flachenecker P, Reiners K, Krauser M et al (2001) Autonomic dysfunction in multiple sclerosis is related to disease activity and progression of disability. Mult Scler 7:327–334
Mahovic D, Lakusic N (2007) Progressive impairment of autonomic control of heart rate in patients with multiple sclerosis. Arch Med Res 38:322–325
Velasco M, Gomez J, Blanco M, Rodriguez I (1997) The cold pressor test: pharmacological and therapeutic aspects. Am J Ther 4:34–38
Domingues RB, Fonseca KB, Ziviane LF et al (2010) Altered cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress but not to cold pressure test in migraine. Headache 50:133–137
Gianaros PJ, Derbtshire SWG, May JC et al (2005) Anterior cingulate activity correlates with blood pressure during stress. Psychophysiol 42:627–635
Stemme A, Deco G, Busch A (2007) The neurodynamics underlining attention control in set shifting tasks. Cogn Neurodyn 1:249–259
Nakamura T, Kawabe K, Sapru HN (2008) Cold pressor test in the rat: medullary and spinal pathways and neurotransmitters. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 95:H1780–H1787
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Domingues, R.B., Carvalho, T.H., Vassallo, D.V. et al. Altered cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress in patients with multiple sclerosis. Neurol Sci 35, 965–967 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-014-1704-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-014-1704-x