Cardiovascular sympathetic tone and stress response related to personality patterns and exercise habits: A potential cardiac risk and screening test

Among 200 professional men, those with emotionally highly excitable personality patterns and those with completely sedentary living habits displayed the highest cardiac sympathetic tone at rest, and the highest cardiac adrenergic response levels under mild standard sensory and mental stresses (telephone bell, flicker light, mental arithmetic). The criteria used for assessment of sympathetic cardiac adrenergic activity were heart rate, length of the isometric tension period of the left ventricle, and relative length of the left ventricular systole in per cent of the cardiac cycle. No clear relations were demonstrable between personality patterns and exercise habits on the one hand, and blood pressure levels and reactions, serum cholesterol concentration, obesity and smoking habits on the other. Parental cardiovascular morbidity was higher in the groups of subjects with exaggerated sympathetic activity. The applied technic for direct measurement of cardiac chronotropic and inotropic adrenergic activity at rest and under stress is expected to be useful for prospective epidemiologic and preventive cardiac reconditioning studies.