Background: Physical fitness may attenuate the increased atherosclerotic risk in patients with systemic hypertension. We investigated the association of screening blood pressure (BP) and cardiorespiratory fitness with baseline levels and exercise-induced changes in levels of soluble atherosclerotic risk markers.
Methods: Twenty-six otherwise healthy and unmedicated subjects with elevated BP (systolic BP and/or diastolic BP > or =130/85 mm Hg) and 40 subjects with normal BP underwent 20-min treadmill exercise at 65% to 70% of predetermined peak oxygen consumption (VO(2peak)). Interleukin (IL)-6, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule (sICAM)-1, von Willebrand factor (VWF) antigen, and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 antigen were measured at baseline (ie, pre-exercise), early postexercise, and late postexercise (ie, 25 min after exercise).
Results: At baseline, higher screening mean arterial BP (MAP) independently predicted higher sICAM-1 levels (P = .031), and lower VO(2peak) independently predicted higher IL-6 (P = .016) and PAI-1 (P < .001) levels. Early and late postexercise lower VO(2peak) was associated with higher mean PAI-1 (P < or = .072) and IL-6 (P < or = .026) levels, and higher screening MAP was associated with higher mean sICAM-1 levels (P < or = .035). Higher VO(2peak) was associated with a greater PAI-1 increase from baseline to early postexercise in subjects with elevated BP (P = .045) but not in those with normal BP.
Conclusions: Circulating levels of some atherosclerotic risk markers at baseline and with exercise were higher with elevated BP and lower with better fitness. Greater fitness did not particularly protect subjects with elevated BP from potentially harmful responses of atherosclerotic risk markers to acute physical exercise.