Randomly selected 2500 people were invited to take part in the study. The aim of the study was to define normal blood pressure response to multistage exercise test in healthy adults with reference to their age and gender at each workload stage. Arterial blood pressure assessment during the exercise test concentrates mainly on the systolic blood pressure and as the measurement of the smallest risk of error, it is frequently employed in clinical practice. The paper presents new values of arterial blood pressure during exercise which can be of use in hypertension diagnostics as well as in hypertensive response to exercise for Polish population. Moreover, normotensive status maintained through pharmacological treatment proved to produce better results than optimal therapy in stroke prevention. It has already been established that the excessive increase in blood pressure during exercise test on a cycle ergometer or a treadmill can be a prognostic factor for future development of hypertension or death due to cardiovascular complications. however, the correlation was identified for the group composed mainly of athletes (90%) aged 10–71 years. The relationship between the systolic blood pressure values and the exercise workload had already been determined with the linear regression by Heck et al. According to the recommendations by American College of Sports Medicine, the increase of dynamic exercise intensity by 1 MET should result in systolic blood pressure increase by 10 mmHg.
According to European and American experts, dynamic exercise of high intensity in normal conditions can cause the maximum value of systolic blood pressure to increase up to 250 mmHg and that of diastolic pressure up to 110 mmHg. Diastolic blood pressure in such conditions usually remains unchanged or may decrease insignificantly. In clinically healthy patients, systolic arterial blood pressure increases during dynamic exercise and stabilizes after 2-3 minutes of exercise of a given intensity. Systolic blood pressure during dynamic, isotonic exercise is expected to rise according to the increasing workload. Blood pressure response to physical exercise is an important diagnostic parameter assessed during submaximal physical exercise tests in diagnostic laboratories. revealed that 79% of patients were unaware of optimal blood pressure range, 23.7% of the elderly subjects did not know the symptoms of hypertension, and 28.7% had poor awareness of hypertension therapy in the absence of symptoms. The study assessing the awareness of hypertension in hypertensive patients from Central Poland by Michalska et al. In WOBASZ Study conducted in Central Poland, hypertension was identified in 40% of males and 32% of females whereas more females than males were undergoing antihypertensive treatment (76% versus 61%, resp.). IntroductionĪrterial hypertension is a serious medical, social, and economic problem in Poland. The relation can be described by linear equation which can be useful in diagnostics of cardiovascular diseases. Systolic BP increases significantly and proportionally to workload increase during exercise test in healthy adults. The relations between BP, age, and workload during exercise test were determined by linear regression analysis and can be illustrated by the equations: systolic BP (mmHg) = 0.346 load (W) + 135.76 for males and systolic BP (mmHg) = 0.103 load (W) + 155.72 for females.
BP was measured at rest and at peak of each exercise test stage. Exercise stress tests were performed using Monark bicycle ergometer until a minimum of 85% of physical capacity was reached. All subjects were clinically healthy with no chronic diseases diagnosed. The study was conducted in randomly selected normotensive subjects, 512 females and 498 males, aged 18–64 years (mean age 42.1 ± 12.7 years) divided into five age groups. The study aim was to determine normal values of BP response to submaximal, multistage exercise test in healthy adults with regard to their age, gender, and workload. The assessment of blood pressure (BP) response during exercise test is an important diagnostic instrument in cardiovascular system evaluation.