Myburgh CE, et al. - An association between defensive coping (DefS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) susceptibility in blacks has been seen, so researchers examined the links between electrocardiographic-left ventricular hypertrophy (ECG-LVH), cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and 24-hour blood pressure (BP) in bi-ethnic groups when routinely using a certain coping style, and in groups when having a stress-related cTnT cut-point of 4.2 ng/L. The observed consequences of using defensive coping included facilitation of autonomic hyperactivity, myocardial injury and subsequent compensatory BP elevations as possible homeostatic reflexes. These impacts resulted in reduced myocardial perfusion deficits. In blacks utilizing habitual defensiveness, sub-clinical wall remodeling and ischemic heart disease risk were found to be increased, and this was attributed to the resulting pressure overload. Asymptomatic patients with emotional stress susceptibility should be regularly screened using ECG and high sensitivity cTnT.