Early detection of essential hypertension by time-frequency analysis

Hypertension affects approximately 25% of adults in industrialized countries and contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Young adult, normotensive offspring of one hypertensive parent (KHT, n = 12) and normotensive offspring of two normotensive parents (YN, n = 14) participated ECG, continuous blood pressure, and respiration were recorded Time-frequency decomposition of these signals was performed by a Continuous Wavelet Transform. During change in posture (CP), KHT demonstrated a significantly greater increase in the low frequency fluctuations in heart rate (HR) than YN, indicating enhanced sympathetic involvement in the HR response to CP. Upon recovery from Handgrip, vagal reactivation was more sluggish in KHT These results indicate possible malfunctions in both branches of autonomic control in individuals at increased risk of hypertension.