Blood Pressure Amid Workout
Indicates Heart Health
Excerpt By Melissa Schorr, Reuters Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A jump in blood pressure during exercise may be a better indicator of underlying heart dysfunction than blood pressure measured at rest, the results of a small study suggest.

``This measure of blood pressure during exercise may reveal new information about the status of someone's underlying cardiovascular health,'' the study's lead author, Dr. Kerry J. Stewart of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, told Reuters Health.

The findings were presented last week in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation.

The researchers followed 35 adults with mild, untreated high blood pressure, measuring their blood pressure at rest and then during a later treadmill test. They also measured how well each person's blood vessels functioned.

The investigators looked specifically at participants' pulse pressure, which measures the difference between a person's systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Systolic pressure is indicated by the first number in a blood pressure reading, and diastolic the second. A larger-than-normal difference between these two numbers--a high pulse pressure--may indicate artery stiffness and an increased risk for cardiovascular disease.

Stewart's team found that people who experienced a high pulse pressure while they were exercising were the most likely to have poor functioning of the endothelial cells lining their blood vessels.

The endothelial cells lining the blood vessels need to be able to contract and relax appropriately to allow for blood flow. Poor functioning of these vessels serves as an indication of poor cardiovascular health, Stewart said. This inability to accommodate blood flow makes the heart have to work harder, raising blood pressure and possibly leading to heart failure or stroke, he explained.

Patients known to be at high risk for heart disease commonly take a stress test that measures cardiovascular function during exercise. This research indicates that doctors should pay special attention to these results, Stewart said, because taking blood pressure during exercise was a better indicator of blood vessel functioning than taking blood pressure while at rest.

``Blood pressure and pulse pressure measured at rest isn't as good a predictor as measuring blood pressure during exercise,'' Stewart said. ``Physicians need to pay more attention to how high blood pressure goes during exercise, because it seems to provide additional information.''

Reference Source 89

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