Background: Exercise-induced changes in arterial function could contribute to a hypertensive response to exercise (HRE) in older individuals. We performed the present analysis to define the acute arterial stiffness response to exercise in ambulatory older adults.Methods: Thirty-nine Veterans (>60 years old), without known cardiovascular disease, participated in this study, including 19 Veterans who were hypertensive (70.8 AE 6.8 years, 53% women) and 20 Veterans who were normotensive (72.0 AE 9.3 years, 40% women). Arterial stiffness parameters were measured locally with carotid artery ultrasound and regionally with carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) before and during the 10 min after participants performed a Balke maximal exercise treadmill stress test.
Results:The arterial stiffness response to exercise was similar for control and hypertensive participants. At 6 min postexercise, cfPWV was significantly increased (D1.5 AE 1.9 m/s, P ¼ 0.004) despite mean blood pressure (BP) having returned to its baseline value (D1 AE 8 mmHg, P ¼ 0.79). Arterial mechanics modeling also showed BPindependent increases in arterial stiffness with exercise (P < 0.05). Postexercise cfPWV was correlated with postexercise SBP (r ¼ 0.50, P ¼ 0.004) while baseline cfPWV (r ¼ 0.13, P ¼ 1.00), and postexercise total peripheral resistance (r ¼ À0.18, P ¼ 1.00) were not.
Conclusion:In older Veterans, exercise increases arterial stiffness independently of BP and the arterial stiffness increase with exercise is associated with increased postexercise SBP. BP-independent increases in arterial stiffness with exercise could contribute to a HRE in older adults.