ABSTRACT
During the past several years, investigating cardiovascular reactivity in the laboratory as a means of studying the pathobiology of cardiovascular diseases has been the subject of some debate. On one hand, several investigators have argued that there is sufficient evidence of a relationship between cardiovascular reactivity and hypertension to warrant further study (Fredrikson & Matthews, 1990; Manuck, 1994). On the other hand, others have concluded that laboratory reactivity studies have made little, if any, contribution to the understanding of hypertension (Pickering & Gerin, 1990; Ravogli et al., 1990) and have questioned the conceptual underpinnings of the proposed association (Julius, Wedner, & Hinderleiter, 1986; Parati et al., 1991). The purposes of the chapter are to review briefly the literature suggesting that cardiovascular reactivity may be a potential risk factor for hypertension and to discuss some of the conceptual and methodological issues surrounding the potential association.
