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Medical Definition of Cold pressor test
1. A cardiocirculatory challenge conventionally performed by immersing one hand in ice cold water for two or more minutes (as tolerated) to acutely raise the blood pressure, thus imposing resistance to ejection of blood from the left ventricle into the systemic arterial system and consequently acutely increased afterload (afterload = increased left ventricular wall stress). Synonym: Hines-Brown test. (05 Mar 2000)