INDEPENDENCE OF BLOOD-PRESSURE RESPONSE TO EXERCISE AND AMBULATORY BLOOD-PRESSURE VALUES IN ESSENTIAL-HYPERTENSION

Ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) recordings over 24 h are used in the diagnosis and evaluation of arterial hypertension severity, while blood pressure response to exercise may unmask hypertensive patients. To evaluate the relationship of the two methods, 40 medication-free patients with mild and moderate essential hypertension underwent symptom-limited treadmill stress test (TST) within 48 h of ABP. TST time, blood pressure increase, decrease, mode of increase and decrease, were independent of ABP systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) over 24 h, daytime and nighttime (p = NS). SBP fall immediately postexercise were independent of ABP data. TST-achieved heart rate was related to both 24-hour SBP (r = -0.65, p = 0.00005) and DBP (r = -0.57, p = 0.0002) in both day (r = -0.65, p = 0.00001 and r = -0.57, p 0.0002) and night (r = -0.56, p = 0.0002 and r = -0.47, p = 0.003) time periods. Thus, patients with achieved heart rate <100% (n = 15) had higher 24-hour SBP (144 vs. 130 mm Hg, p = 0.0007) and DBP (93 vs. 86 mm Hg, p 0.007), day and night. It is concluded that there is no overlap of diagnostic information using blood pressure values in TST or ABP, although achieved heart rate in exercise is inversely related to hypertension severity.