[Cranial electrostimulation--a new nondrug method of treating the initial stage of hypertension]

The authors relate the data on the hypotensive effect and procedure of cranial electric stimulation (CES). The method was applied to the treatment of 66 patients aged 20-40 years suffering from stage I essential hypertension (EH) (WHO classification). To provide clinical and physiological evidence for CES, the EEG and ECG were recorded. In addition, computer was employed to average out and to design the histograms of the R-R intervals as was echocardiography to examine central hemodynamics. Before the treatment of SAP (179.2 +/- 4.3 mm Hg), DAP (104.2 +/- 2.6 mm Hg) the patients manifested cephalgia, cardialgia, pronounced vegetative dysfunction. The EEG showed phenomena of irritation in the upper stem structures of the brain. The histograms of R-R intervals distribution demonstrated the signs of a decrease of the tonic influence of the parasympathetic nervous system. The hyperkinetic type of hemodynamics was revealed. After CES the patients manifested an improvement of subjective symptomatology: headache attacks ceased in 85% of the patients, heart pains in 76%; AP got stabilized within normal, which correlated with normalization of central hemodynamics. The histograms of R-R intervals distribution demonstrated an increase of the model value, a decline of the mode, and a rise of the variation range, attesting to the changes in vegetative regulation of heart activity, with a reduction of sympathetic regulation and a simultaneous increment of parasympathetic effects. The authors hold that CES is an effective and prospective method of the treatment of the initial stage of EH.