Previous studies among American and European populations have demonstrated larger blood pressure responses to behavioral challenges among men and hypertensive individuals. This is the first report of cardiovascular responses to behavioral challenges in a West African population. Blood pressure and heart rate changes in mirror image tracing and speech making tasks were recorded for 787 Nigerian civil servants participating in a comprehensive blood pressure survey conducted in Benin City, Nigeria, during 1992. Similar to findings in other populations, greater task-induced increases in systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were present among men than women (mean values of SBP = 22.1 vs. 18.3 mmHg, p < 0.001; and DBP means = 13.3 vs. 11.2 mmHg, p < 0.0001) and among hypertensives than normotensives (SBP means = 27.6 vs. 19.2, p < 0.0001; and DBP means = 14.1 vs. 12.1 mmHg, p < 0.05). An elevated prevalence of hypertension among men of higher staff status has been found in this population; however, higher staff status was not consistently related to cardiovascular reactivity, independent of hypertensive status. Additionally, hypertensive men who had speech-induced increases of SBP > 40 mmHg had significantly greater left ventricular mass index than did those hypertensive men with smaller SBP increases (p < 0.04). This study demonstrates that measures of cardiovascular reactivity to behavioral challenges have cross-cultural application, suggesting the need for further investigations of the interrelation of hypertension, cardiovascular reactivity, and left ventricular mass.

The Dallas consensus was used to reveal active or borderline inflammatory loci by light microscopy (LM). When lymphocyte-cardiocyte interaction was observed by electron microscopy (EM), the deleterious or dormant pattern of inflammatory process was recognized. The first was determined by lymphocytes that adhered to cardiocytes, next to necrotic cardiocytes or admixed with debris. The second was marked by scattered lymphocytes between preserved cardiocytes and the absence of lymphocytes adhered to cardiocytes and necrotic cardiocytes. The deleterious pattern of the inflammatory process (EM) commonly supplemented the active appearance of inflammatory loci (LM). In contrast, the borderline outlook of the LM completed either the deleterious or dormant pattern of the EM. This discrepancy was related to the restricted resolution of LM, which might hide the actual stage of the disease. The diagnosis of myocarditis was founded on mutual LM and EM observations. The active or borderline appearance of LM of the deleterious pattern (EM) was considered indicative for the active stage of myocarditis. The borderline outlook of the LM of the dormant pattern of the EM was admitted to indicate either the healing phase of the disease with lymphocytes still lagging behind, or a latent phase of the ongoing myocarditis, according to the patient's hemodynamic status.