Submission Date

7-19-2018

Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Department

Health & Exercise Physiology

Faculty Mentor

Deborah Feairheller

Comments

Presented during the 20th Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 20, 2018 at Ursinus College.

Project Description

Hypertension is one of the leading risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). There are many things that cause hypertension, including work related stress. In a previous HEART lab study, volunteer firefighters were studied to measure the surge in blood pressure (BP) after their pager alarm sounded. The purpose of the present study is to analyze BP surges in a control population and compare it to the BP elevations discovered in the firefighters. Data analyzed includes the measured pre-alarm BP, systolic and diastolic surges, and the amount of time it takes for BP to return to the pre-alarm level. Each participant wore an ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitor to track BP for a full 12 hours. During that time period, they were “paged” using the OnPage cellphone app, and when the app alarm sounded they forced a BP measurement on the ABP monitor. For further CVD analysis, fasted levels of glucose and cholesterol will be assessed for relationships to the BP surge. Central BP will also be recorded using pulse wave analysis to detect arterial stiffness. We anticipate that there will be noticeable BP surges in the control group, but that the surge will not be as elevated as those seen in the firefighter population.

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