The determinants of blood pressure response to exercise

IntroductionThere is currently no consensus on the definition of normal BP (blood pressure) increase during exercise and thus of the exaggerated BP response to exercise. The aim of the present study was a description of the relationship between BP and work rate corrected by body weight on cycle ergometer. A secondary objective was to explore the possible components of this relationship.Materials and methodsAn observational study with retrospective analysis of the BP data acquired during standard stress tests on cycle ergometer was performed. For the analysis each work rate was expressed corrected to the patients’ body weight.ResultsWe analysed BP data from a total of 313 stress tests. From the linear regression analysis we found that at the first exercise step systolic BP depends primarily on resting BP (p = 0.001), on W/kg (p = 0.001), on BMI (p = 0.005) and age (p = 0.002) (BP = −25.059 + 0.927*BPrest + 31.625*W/kg1 + 0.840*BMI + 0.235*age) and diastolic BP depends primarily on resting BP (p = 0.001), and on resting diastolic BP (p = 0.033): BP = 29.790 + 0.583*BPrest + 0.071*BPrest. On subsequent steps age did no more influence systolic BP and resting diastolic BP remained the main determinant of diastolic BP.ConclusionThe main finding of this study is the confirmation that the exercise blood pressure depends principally on resting blood pressure and work rate and to a lesser amount on BMI and age. In future studies work rate should be corrected by body weight at submaximal levels.