Publications by authors named "Bragdon E"

Unlabelled: In patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) and temporomandibular disorder (TMD), stress and pain may chronically enhance sympathetic activity, altering cardiovascular responses and worsening pain. This study examined cardiovascular, epinephrine (EPI), norepinephrine (NE), cortisol and clinical pain responses in 54 female patients with these disorders and 34 controls. In a subsample of 10 FMS, 10 TMD patients and 16 controls, using a counterbalanced, double-blind, crossover design, the same responses were assessed after intravenous administration of low dose propranolol vs placebo.

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Ghrelin, a gut-brain peptide that signals hunger, is normally suppressed after meals. Subnormal suppression of postprandial ghrelin, previously noted in obese, insulin-resistant individuals, may contribute to increased food intake. Given the ethnic disparities in obesity and obesity-related cardiovascular morbidity in the United States, the present study compared a single postprandial ghrelin measure in 43 women (22 white, 21 black).

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Background: Mental stress testing is considered a reliable method for diagnosing patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) who may be at risk for future events. It has been shown recently that myocardial ischemia induced during mental stress tests is specifically associated with peripheral arterial vasoconstriction.

Hypothesis: The study was undertaken to test the diagnostic capability of peripheral arterial tonometry (PAT) to detect peripheral arterial vasomotor changes.

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The current study examined patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMD) (n=20) and pain-free controls (n=28) under stress and relaxation conditions. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), norepinephrine and epinephrine (NE and E) were measured both before and during each of two conditions: a non-stressful relaxation period and a speech stressor. Ischemic pain sensitivity was also assessed after each of these conditions.

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Previously reported differences in sensitivity to experimental pain stimuli between the sexes, as well as between temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients and healthy control subjects, may be attributable in part to group differences in two pain modulatory mechanisms: the baroreceptor reflex arc and the endogenous opioid system. Twenty-two pain-free (PF) men, 20 PF women and 20 women with TMD underwent two testing sessions in which heat pain and ischemic arm pain threshold and tolerance were measured during both sessions, but followed relaxation during one session and laboratory stress tasks during the other. Blood pressure (BP) and plasma -endorphin (E) concentration were measured during a baseline rest and during the stress or relaxation periods.

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We investigated the relationship of pessimistic attributional style (specifically, stable attributions for negative events) and socioeconomic status (SES) to cardiovascular and catecholamine profiles in a biracial sample of 37 postmenopausal women (aged 39-64 years) not taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Blood pressure (BP) variation in response to the demands of daily life was assessed by 24-hour ambulatory monitoring on a typical workday. Subjects were classified into groups by stable pessimistic attributions (high vs.

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High cardiovascular responsivity to stressors has not consistently improved prediction of later blood pressure increases beyond the predictive effects of baseline pressure. Animal models suggest that genetic susceptibility to hypertension and frequent stress exposure are important modulating factors in stress-related hypertension. Thus in 103 men originally tested at age 18 to 22 years and reassessed 10 years later, interactive effects of genetic susceptibility (defined as 1 or more hypertensive parents) with high stress responsivity (defined as top 25% on the basis of blood pressure and cardiac responses during both reaction time and cold pressor tasks) were examined in relation to follow-up systolic and diastolic levels and to change in blood pressure status from normal (diastolic<80 mm Hg) to marginally elevated (diastolic 85 to 95 mm Hg).

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The typical American diet includes high salt and low potassium, a pattern linked to elevated blood pressure (BP) in cross-cultural studies. This study compared resting and stress cardiovascular responses on a high salt, low potassium diet to those observed during 2 interventions: salt restriction and potassium supplementation. Forty-seven percent of the primarily normotensive sample (n = 67 adults) were salt sensitive, showing a decrease in mean arterial pressure > or = 5 mmHg during low salt and equivalent reductions during high potassium.

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In this study, we examined test-retest stability of cardiovascular stress responses over a decade of the life span. Participants were 55 male college undergraduates, 19 years of age at initial testing, and 29 years of age at follow-up testing. Stressors were a foot cold pressor and an aversive reaction time task.

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We studied 38 men and 36 women to learn whether a brief speech stressor reduced normotensive humans' thermal pain sensitivity, whether baseline and poststress pain threshold and tolerance varied with blood pressure (BP) and hemodynamic measures, and whether these relations differed by gender and parental hypertension (PH). PH-women with low-resting BPs had lower baseline pain tolerance than did all the other groups (ps <.05), and this group alone exhibited stress-induced analgesia (p = .

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Unlabelled: We compared symptomatic, hemodynamic and opioid responses of heart disease patients to exercise testing and a stressful public speaking task. Plasma beta-endorphins were measured at rest and immediately post stress. Nineteen of 50 patients had angina during exercise; 31 had asymptomatic ischemia.

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To test the hypothesis that hypertension diminishes pain perception, a study was made that evaluated the relation between arterial blood pressure and thermal pain perception in human subjects. The average mean arterial pressure in all 20 men studied (10 hypertensive, 10 normotensive) proved to be significantly related to both thermal pain threshold (p = 0.05) and tolerance (p = 0.

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A sample of 45 patients with a history of coronary heart disease and documented myocardial ischemia during exercise testing were evaluated in an investigation of the possible relationships between psychological factors (depression and Type A behavior pattern), plasma beta-endorphin response and pain experience during maximal exercise-induced ischemia. Depression was assessed using the MMPI-D subscale, while Type A was evaluated using the Structured Interview. All patients developed ischemia during exercise as defined by ST-segment depression; however, only 18 patients reported anginal pain.

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The role of increased myocardial oxygen demand in the pathophysiology of myocardial ischemia occurring during daily activities was evaluated in 50 patients with coronary artery disease and exercise-induced ST segment depression. Each patient underwent ambulatory electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring for ST segment shifts during normal daily activities and symptom-limited bicycle exercise testing with continuous ECG monitoring. All 50 patients had ST depression greater than or equal to 0.

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Age is a recognized risk factor for coronary artery disease, but the relationship between age and silent ischemia is not well understood. We analyzed the data from 35 rest/stress radionuclide ventriculography examinations in patients with documented ischemic coronary artery disease who had experienced 1 mm ST segment depression accompanied by angina during exercise testing. An index of ischemic cardiac pain perception (PPI) was calculated by subtracting the time of onset of 1 mm ST segment depression from the time of onset of angina.

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To compare the results of monitoring for ischemia with amplitude-modulated (AM) and frequency-modulated (FM) ambulatory recorders, 22 patients with coronary artery disease were monitored during exercise and during 24 to 48 hours of daily activities. Simultaneous recordings were obtained with Oxford Medilog 4000-II and Medilog MR-35 systems from the same 2 bipolar leads. Each potential ischemic episode was interpreted blindly by 2 investigators.

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Evidence suggests that endogenous opioids, particularly the beta-endorphins and met-enkephalins, are closely involved in stress-induced analgesia and nociceptive pain control. Numerous investigations have been conducted to evaluate the role of opioids in silent vs symptomatic myocardial disease. There is good evidence to suggest that patients with asymptomatic ischemia have defective pain perception compared with those with angina; however, the precise role of the endorphin and enkephalin systems in this phenomenon remains to be elucidated.

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This investigation examined the reproducibility of resting and post exercise plasma beta-endorphin levels. Twenty subjects (10 men and 10 women) had their resting endorphin levels measured under controlled conditions on four separate occasions. Concomitantly, the endorphin response of eight trained runners completing three similar ten mile runs was also determined.

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