[Reproducibility of the blood pressure variability parameters by plethysmographic method (FINAPRES) in normotensive subject].

Aim Of The Study: to assess the reproducibility of blood pressure and heart rate variability measurements in time and frequency domain, by using a Finapres device in healthy volunteers.

Methods: 16 normotensive subjects aged 22 to 51 years underwent within a 5-day interval two non-invasive blood pressure recordings by a Finapres device over 15 minutes both in supine and standing positions, at the same time of the day.

Statistical Analysis: non parametric tests, relative errors, and intraclass correlation coefficient.

[Coronary artery disease in hypertensive patients: improvement of the diagnostic value of exercise test by heart rate adjusted ST segment depression].

Unlabelled: Hypertensive patients complaining of chest pain often have a normal coronary angiogram despite a pathological exercise tolerance test. The aim of the present study was to establish whether the prevalence of these "false-positive" tests could be lowered by adjusting ST segment depression for exercise-induced increase in heart rate.

Methods: 60 hypertensive patients, mean age 59 years, with typical or atypical chest pain, underwent both a symptom-limited exercise test and a coronary angiogram within a median period of 1 day.

[Improvement of the diagnostic value of exercise test by heart-rate adjusted segment depression. Value of ST 20/HR index].

One of the new criteria of positivity of exercise stress testing proposed by Detrano and Kligfield is the ST/HR index, obtained by calculating the ratio of additional ST depression on exercise over the corresponding variation in the heart rate. These authors reported that this ratio improved the diagnostic value of the exercise stress test with respect to the traditional ST segment depression, but that the proportion depended on whether the index was measured 80 or 60 ms after the J point. The object of this study was to assess the diagnostic performance of the ST/HR index measured 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 ms after the J point by automatic analysis and to compare these five diagnostic indices with the classical ST segment depression (standard criterion) by ROC graphs and the Mac Nemar test.