[Occupational stress as a factor of left ventricular myocardial remodeling in people with normal arterial pressure].

The authors studied correlations between occupational stress, caused by high tension at work, and disturbances in 24-hour arterial pressure (AP), lipid level, and left ventricular (LM) myocardial remodeling in locomotive engineers with normal AP. Two hundred and five locomotive engineers with NAP (according to 2004 classification by Russian Scientific Society of Cardiologists) aged 20 to 45 years were included in this cross-sectional study; the subjects present a whole sample of the locomotive crew of Chelyabinsk railway station. The control group consisted of III persons working eight fixed working hours a day whose work was not associated with high tension (turners and metalworkers). The examination of the both groups included bifunctional 24-hour AP and ECG monitoring during the subjects'days off, Echo CG, measurement of blood lipids, and measurement of table salt sensitivity threshold. Also evaluated were the prevalence of horizontal and vertical family background of arterial hypertension, excessive body weight, hypokinesia, and smoking. The study demonstrated that the prevalence of the chief factors of chronic non-infectious diseases as well as the values of office and 24-hour systolic and diastolic arterial pressure (SAD; DAD) were the same in both groups. At the same time, the locomotive engineers with normal AP had unfavorable hemodynamic AP profile (24-hour SAD index (p = 0.008) was lower indicating insufficient SAD decrease at night; the speed of morning SAD and DAD increase was elevated 1.5 to 2 times; heart rate was higher as well) which can be considered signs of hypersympathicotonia. By comparison with the controls, the locomotive engineers had more pronounced morphofunctional changes in the left ventricular (LV), myocardium; LV mass was greater, and LV myocardial hypertrophy was more frequent in this group (17.9 and 1.8%, respectively). The data demonstrate the contribution of occupational stress-related non-hemodynamic factors to myocardial remodeling and atherogenic lipid shift in individuals whose occupational activity is connected with high tension.