Exercise SBP tied to cardiovascular disease risk

Exercise systolic blood pressure (SBP) is linked to several cardiovascular risk factors, which tend to be worse in individuals with a hypertensive response to exercise (HRE), reveals a study.

“HRE is associated with cardiovascular disease and high BP,” the investigators said. “A poor cardiovascular risk factor profile may underlie these associations, although this has not been systematically elucidated.”

To address such gap, a team of investigators searched three online databases for cross-sectional studies reporting data on exercise BP, an HRE, and cardiovascular risk factors, including arterial structure, lipid, metabolic, inflammatory, and kidney function markers.

Pooled associations between exercise BP and each risk factor as well as pooled mean differences between individuals with and without an HRE were calculated using random-effects meta-analyses and meta-regression.

Thirty-eight studies including a total of 38,295 participants (aged 50±3 years, 78 percent male) met the eligibility criteria. Exercise SBP correlated with arterial, lipid, and kidney function risk markers (p<0.05).

Participants with an HRE had greater aortic stiffness (0.80±0.35 m/s), total (0.14±0.03 mmol/l) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (0.12±0.03 mmol/l), triglycerides (0.24±0.04 mmol/l), glucose (0.15±0.05 mmol/l), white blood cell count (0.49±0.16 mmol/l) and albumin-to-creatinine ratio (standardized mean difference, 0.97±0.34), and lower flow-mediated dilation (–4.13±1.02 percent) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (–0.04±0.01 mmol/l) than those with no HRE (p<0.05 for all).

Of note, these findings were similar across study populations.

“As results were similar across population groups, an HRE should be considered an important indicator of cardiovascular risk,” the investigators said.