Systolic blood pressure during recovery from exercise is related to flow-mediated dilatation in patients with coronary artery disease

Objective To assess the relationship between exercise-induced parameters obtained from the routine exercise stress testing (EST) and flow-mediated vasodilatation (FMD) as an index of endothelial function. Design A retrospective study. Setting Kurume University Medical Center, Kurume, Japan. Patients All patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) who were admitted to Kurume University Medical Center. Main outcome measure Results of EST and FMD. Results We studied 66 patients (35 male/31 female) with CAD. All patients underwent symptom-limited EST and measurement of FMD. Exercise parameters included exercise-induced heart rate and systolic blood pressure (SBP). FMD did not differ between male and female groups. In univariate analysis, determinants of FMD included age and the change in SBP at 1 min after exercise. In Cox hazard model analysis, the change in SBP at 1 min after exercise (p=0.011) was an independent determinant of FMD. FMD in patients with abnormal SBP response group was significantly lower than that in normal SBP response group (4.2 +/- 1.8 ns. 6.1 +/- 2.6%, p<0.05). Conclusions These findings suggest that SBP during recovery from exercise is associated with endothelial function in patients with CAD.