Purpose: to compare prevalence of maladaptive responses and risk of hypertension and cardiovascular remodeling.
Material and methods: We examined using clinical and instrumental methods 1321 workers of locomotive crews; 472 of those examined were followed-up for 12 years.
Results: Machinists with maladaptive responses compared with the group of individuals with normal tension of adaptation processes had greater left ventricular myocardial mass and carotid artery intima-media thickness regardless of blood pressure (BP) level. During follow up 380/472 persons maintained normal BP while 87 developed hypertension (5 patients with symptomatic hypertension were excluded from analysis). According to modified MMPI test persons with hypertension had higher scores on scales 2, 8, and 6. Personality profile was characterized by presence of mixed type of response with combination of high need for self-realization and tendency to curb behavioral reactions.
Keywords: arterial hypertension; occupational stress; personality profile.