Pregnant Women’s Blood Pressure Reactivity Differences With and Without Family History of Hypertension After Undergoingthe Cold Pressor Test (CPT)

Abstract

— Pregnancy may physiologically trigger pregnant women’s cardio-vascular system to progressively adapt with significant structural and functional changes, such as increasing blood volume, cardiac output, heart rate and stroke volume as well as decreasing blood pressure and systemic vascular resistance, including hypertension which is possibly triggered by family history of hypertension. The Cold Pressor Test (CPT) was conducted to see pregnant women’s blood pressure reactivity differences with and without family history of hypertension. This research aims at examining pregnant women’s blood pressure reactivity differences with and without family history of hypertension after undergoing the Cold Pressor Test (CPT). This quasi-experimental research measured both systolic and diastolic blood pressure changes before and after undergoing the Cold Pressor Test (CPT), while the data was processed using Mann-Whitney test. Results: Of 80 pregnant women’s mean systolic blood pressure with family history of hypertension before and after undergoing the Cold Pressor Test (CPT)was respectively 103.82 mmhg and 126.76 mmhg, while, their mean diastolic blood pressure before and after undergoing the Cold Pressor Test (CPT) was respectively 76.62 mmhg and 100.29 mmhg. The pregnant women’s mean systolic blood pressure without family history of hypertension before and after undergoing the Cold Pressor Test (CPT) was 107.91 mmHg and 118.87 mmHg while their mean diastolic blood pressure before and after undergoing the Cold Pressor Test (CPT) was respectively 76.62 mmHg and 78.50 mmHg. After the data was processed using Mann-Whitney test it showed a significance value of0.003. Because the p-value was <0.05, it can be concluded that there was a significant difference between pregnant mothers with and without family history of hypertension and those with both systolic hypo-reactor and hyper-reactor. Conclusion: there is a significant difference between pregnant women with and without family history of hypertension and blood pressure.