[The blood pressure-regulating role of the renin-angiotensin system in essential hypertension before and after emotional stress].

The aim of the study was to prove the correlations between systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR) and plasma renin activity (PRA) under mental arithmetic stress without and with beta-blockade. 22 male hypertensive patients (aged 19-39 years) were examined, divided into a group treated with d, 1-propranolol (Obsidan) and a control group receiving placebo. Under arithmetic stress the kinetics of systolic BP showed no differences even after beta-blockade. In contrast, the increases of HR and PRA before, during and after mental arithmetic were either significantly reduced (HR) or completely blocked (PRA) under beta-blockade. However, these suppressions of HR and PRA did not prevent the stress-induced elevations of systolic and diastolic BP under beta-blockade.