Rapid onset pressor response to exercise in young women with a family history of hypertension

Abstract

Hypertensive adults demonstrate atypical increases in blood pressure (BP) and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) at the immediate onset of static muscle contraction. However, it is unknown whether these abnormal responses occur in young, otherwise healthy adults at risk for developing future disease, such as those with a family history of hypertension (+FH). We tested the hypothesis that +FH young women have exaggerated increases in BP and MSNA at the onset of static muscle contraction compared to those without a family history of hypertension (-FH). We retrospectively examined beat-by-beat BP and MSNA during the initial 30 seconds of isometric handgrip exercise (30% of maximum voluntary contraction) in 16 +FH (22±2yrs, 22±3kg•m-2) and 16 -FH (22±3yrs, 22±3kg•m-2) women. Resting mean arterial pressure (MAP; +FH 80±11 vs. -FH 84±13mmHg), MSNA burst frequency (+FH 7±3 vs. -FH 9±5bursts•min-1), and burst incidence (+FH 12±4 vs. -FH 12±8bursts•100 heartbeats -1) were similar between groups (all P>0.05). Within the first 10 seconds of exercise, changes in MAP (+FH Δ8±6 vs. -FH Δ3±2 mmHg, P<0.05) and HR (+FH Δ8±5 vs. -FH Δ4±4 mmHg, P<0.05) were greater in +FH women. Absolute MSNA burst frequency during the first 30 seconds of exercise was not different between groups (-FH: 7±5 vs. +FH: 9±3 bursts/min). Cardiovascular and sympathetic responses during cold pressor test were not different between groups. These data demonstrate that young women at risk for developing cardiovascular disease exhibit greater changes in BP at the onset of static muscle contraction.

Assessment of Perfusion and Oxygenation of the Human Renal Cortex and Medulla by Quantitative MRI during Handgrip Exercise

“…sympathetic nervous system with higher BP. An exaggerated BP and muscle sympathetic nerve activity response to handgrip exercise has been demonstrated in hypertensive compared with normotensive individuals, 34 hypertension-prone individuals, 49 and individuals with CKD. 50 The reason for this is unknown.…”

Cardiovascular diseases, cold exposure and exercise

“…Compared to the previous cold stimuli eliciting thermoregulatory responses, the cold pressor test represents a generalized sympathoexcitatory stimulus. Similarly as healthy persons, also hypertensive subjects demonstrate an overall increase in mean arterial pressure, SBP, DBP MSNA and HR during the cold pressor test [40,57,60,71]. In addition, equally to whole-body cold exposure [61,76], a higher responsiveness to the cold pressor test has been detected among hypertensive compared with normotensive subjects [60].…”

“…Family history of hypertension may predispose to later cardiovascular diseases and has shown higher reactivity to the cold pressor test. Two studies examining sympathetic reactivity (but with no special focus on cold-related responses) showed either a greater BP response [71] or no effect [57] among young women. Though the latter observed aggravated responses at the onset of isometric exercise among those with family history of hypertension.…”

“…In this context, evidence is available concerning with hypertension, coronary artery disease and one study of heart failure patients (Table 1). A large share of these have used the cold pressor test for cardiovascular stimulation [40,51,55,[57][58][59][60]. The reminder of the research included whole-body (with or without facial exposure) skin cooling [38,42,43,[61][62][63][64][65], local cooling of skin [66] or face [36], cold water immersion in association with sauna bathing [67], or brief intense whole-body cold exposures (cryostimulation) [68,69].…”

“…), but a few studies examined early disease development and also involved younger (20-35 yrs.) subjects [57,59,63,65,71].…”