Impact of acute mental stress on ankle blood pressure in young healthy men: a pilot study

Objective: Acute mental stress (MS) increases arm blood pressure (BP); however, it remains unclear whether a stress-induced pressor response is also observed in other vessels. This study aimed to examine the impact of acute MS on ankle BP. Fifty-six young, healthy men aged 19-24 years were divided into the MS (n = 29) and control (CON) (n = 27) groups; each group performed 5-min MS (mental arithmetic) or CON tasks. Systolic and diastolic BPs (SBP and DBP, respectively) of both the brachial and posterior tibial arteries were simultaneously measured at the baseline and 5 and 30 min after the task.

Results: In the MS group, brachial BP measures significantly increased (P < 0.05) until 30 min after the task; ankle BP measures were also significantly (P < 0.05) elevated during this time. In the CON group, no significant changes were found in brachial BP measures or ankle SBP, whereas a significant increase (P < 0.05) in ankle DBP was observed 30 min after the task. Our findings indicate that both brachial and ankle BP exhibit a sustained elevation after acute MS, suggesting a systemic pressor response by stress exposure. The measurement of ankle BP in addition to arm BP may be important to assess the stress response.

Trial registration: UMIN Clinical Trials Registry UMIN000047796 Registered on: 20th May 2022.