Cardiovascular responses to family visits in coronary care unit patients

Changes in four cardiovascular indicators: systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and premature ventricular contractions, were studied as responses to family visits and a 10-minute interview with the investigator in 24 patients in a coronary care unit. By use of a repeated-measures design, data were compared by multivariate analysis of variance. No significant differences were found between the group mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and rate of premature ventricular contractions during family visits and interviews. The lowest systolic and diastolic blood pressure values were significantly lower during the visit than during the interview, suggesting that the visit had a calming effect on patients. Although the highest heart rate was significantly higher during the visit than during the interview, the difference was clinically inconsequential. The wide variance in premature ventricular contraction values suggests individual variation in responses, but no significant differences were found between visits and interviews. Although family visits were no more physiologically stressful than a comparative social interaction, select subsamples of patients with cardiac disease should be studied for more specific reaction patterns.