Cardiovascular and hormonal responses to a structured interview, an electronic video game, a cold pressor test, and exercise on a bicycle ergometer were assessed in eighty-three 25- to 44-year-old normotensive Black and White men and women. Blacks showed significantly greater diastolic blood pressure (DBP) responses than Whites during the cold pressor test, which were not accounted for by an increase in plasma catecholamines. Exercise produced reliably greater systolic blood pressure (SBP) increases in Black women than in Black men or White women. Men showed significantly greater SBP and DBP changes than women during the video game. These findings suggest that the pattern of physiological reactivity elicited by challenge is related to the race and sex of the subjects.

The pharmacokinetic properties of thiopental were studied in 10 asphyxiated neonates (mean ± SE; birth weight, 3,244 ± 212 g; gestational age, 40 ± 1 weeks) as part of a randomized, controlled trial which tested the ability of barbiturate therapy to decrease central nervous system damage secondary to perinatal asphyxia. Therapy was begun at a mean age of 2.3 h in all and was initially given as a loading dose of 15 mg/kg over 30 min followed by a constant infusion. The mean steady-state thiopental concentration was 13.4 ± 3.7 μg/ml (mean ± SD) and the average time to reach steady state was 7 ± 5 h. Mean elimination half-life, plasma clearance and volume of distribution for thiopental were 39 h (range 26-70), 66 ml/(h × kg) (range 31-172), and 3.6 liters/kg (range 1.1-6.7), respectively. Arterial blood pressure support was required in 8 of 10 patients. While it appears feasible to give thiopental to the asphyxiated neonate at the reported infusion rates, the risk-benefit ratio is increased by the frequent associated hypotension and need for pharmacologic blood pressure support.

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