Reliability and reactivity of the prefrontal hemodynamic responses in essential hypertension: a functional near infrared spectroscopy study

•Prefrontal hemodynamic changes are reliable in younger Stage 1 hypertensive males.•Prefrontal carbon dioxide reactivity changes are reliable in Stage 1 hypertensive males.•Trend of impaired carbon dioxide reactivity in Stage 1 male hypertensives was insignificant.

Prefrontal (PFC) cerebral vasoreactivity may be altered in hypertension but has not been studied during postural change and carbon dioxide (CO2) rebreathing. In this study, a dual procedure of 5% CO2 rebreathing with positional change (standing to supine and reverse) was performed on normotensive (N = 24) and essential hypertensive males (N = 16) (18–55 years) to assess reliability of PFC responses using functional near infrared spectroscopy. The groups (matched on age levels, N = 13) were also compared on their hemodynamic reactivity (change of oxyhemoglobin or total hemoglobin as a function of change in end tidal CO2). Test–retest reliability within one session and 7 days later was moderate to high (intraclass correlation coefficient = .63–.901) in both normotensive and hypertensive groups for all hemodynamic measures; whereas reliability of reactivity measures for oxyhemoglobin and total hemoglobin was moderate (intraclass correlation coefficient = .68–.762). Functional near infrared spectroscopy–measured PFC hemodynamic responses are highly reproducible in normotensive and adult essential hypertensive males.