Cardiovascular Effects of Mental Stress in Healthy Volunteers

Research output: Contribution to book/conference proceedings/anthology/reportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Abstract

Mental stress causes a physiological response and is often assessed by heart rate variability. In this work, we investigated cardiovascular parameters other than heart rate variability. We performed a stress test with 44 healthy volunteers and evaluated 17 cardiovascular parameters measured with a CNSystems Task Force® Monitor, several self-reported measures as well as cortisol and -amylase concentrations from saliva samples. By statistical testing we determined the cardiovascular parameters that exhibited the clearest response to the stress test. In addition, we attempted the classification of cardiac cycle states using a random forest classifier that was evaluated with Cohen's kappa ${\kappa}$ in a leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. From the cardiovascular parameters, heart rate, cardiac output, cardiac index, mean blood pressure, and left ventricular work index yielded significant results. Cardiac cycle state classification reached ${\kappa \,=\,0.58}$. While the self-reported measures showed clear stress responses, salivary cortisol and -amylase concentrations remained mostly unaffected. The presented study provides insights into the physiological response to mental stress. We identified the parameters that showed a clear stress response, with the strongest effect found for the elevated left ventricular work index.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication48th Conference Computing in Cardiology (CinC)
PublisherWiley-IEEE Press
Pages1-4
Number of pages4
Volume48
ISBN (electronic)9781665479165
ISBN (print)978-1-6654-6721-6
Publication statusPublished - 15 Sept 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

Conference

Title2021 Computing in Cardiology (CinC)
Abbreviated titleCinC 2021
Conference number48
Duration12 - 15 September 2021
Website
Degree of recognitionInternational event
LocationHotel Passage & online
CityBrno
CountryCzech Republic

External IDs

Scopus 85121922572
ORCID /0000-0003-4012-0608/work/142235694
ORCID /0000-0002-6673-9591/work/142242348

Keywords

Research priority areas of TU Dresden

Sustainable Development Goals

ASJC Scopus subject areas