Influence of gender, training and circadian time of testing in the cardiovascular response to stress tests

Several studies have been performed on the cardiovascular response to physical and psychical stress and their value as early predictors of hypertension. The conclusions of these studies have been discrepant or even opposite. These discrepancies could be due in part to factors such as the time when the test is done, the degree of training of the subject in relation with the test, or the gender, usually ignored in the design of the trials. We have tested the statistically significant influence of these factors in the cardiovascular response to a physical and psychical test repeated several times at different circadian times in normotensive volunteers of both genders.