Similarities and Differences in Acute Cardiovascular Responses to Alcohol among Normal Men of European, Japanese, and Chinese Ancestry: A Univariate and Multivariate Analysis

Abstract

Normal young adult males residing in Hawaii (46 of European ancestry, 30 Japanese, 27 Chinese) were tested for changes in heart rate and blood pressure following a dose of 0.59 g of ethanol/kg. The two Oriental groups did not differ in mean changes but, when pooled, differed from Europeans, having increased heart rate and decreased blood pressure. Within-race analyses showed that, contrary to the literature, all three groups have great interindividual differences in cardiovascular responses. In addition, the three races show a basically similar multivariate response: blood pressure more variable than heart rate and blood pressure changes uncorrelated with heart rate changes.