Dissociation between sympathetic nerve traffic and sympathetically mediated vascular tone in normotensive human obesity.

Obesity increases the risk of hypertension and its cardiovascular complications. This has been partly attributed to increased sympathetic nerve activity, as assessed by microneurography and catecholamine assays. However, increased vasoconstriction in response to obesity-induced sympathoactivation has not been unequivocally demonstrated in obese subjects without hypertension.