The patient with essential hypertension has an excessive physical and emotional response to many different stimuli. The study of these excessive responses, especially of the blood pressure, is of great importance in the early recognition of the disease. The use of a simple standardized stimulus (cold) to study the response of blood pressure in cases of essential hypertension was first reported by Hines and Brown1 in 1932.
In a previous paper,2 we reported our own results with 313 cold pressor tests, and in general we have been able to confirm the findings of Hines and Brown. During the past year, we have devised and investigated a new standard test utilizing vasomotor stimulus—the breath-holding test—and the following is a preliminary report of our findings with this test:
TECHNIC OF THE BREATH-HOLDING TEST
With the subject sitting in a quiet room, the blood pressure is determined at about five minute