[The blood pressure response to physical exertion in adults: a preliminary survey results]

Monitoring changes in blood pressure except controlling clinical symptoms and electrocardiogram during submaximal physical exertion is essential for analyzing stress test results. Taking into consideration changes in a blood pressure play an important role in diagnostic procedures and assessment of exercise tolerance in adults. The aim of this study was to assess changes in blood pressure among adults during gradually increasing physical exertion. Blood pressure assessment was conducted in every single workload during exercise stress test. The preliminary study was performed in the randomly selected group of normotensive subjects n=224 including 107 female and 117 male 25-64 years old. Study participants had no cardiovascular or other noncommunicable diseases diagnosed by a physician. To determine cardiorespiratory fitness in the examined persons the submaximal exercise stress tests on a bicycle ergometer were performed. Blood pressure measurements were obtained according to Polish Hypertension Society (2003) standards by trained technician with a sphygmomanometer during rest period and during last minute on each level of workload.

Mean values of resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure were significantly higher in male comparing with female (125.6 +/- 12.8 mmHg vs 117.7 +/- 15.6 mmHg for systolic and 81.3 +/- 8.5 mmHg vs 76.2 +/- 8.1 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure). We found statistically significant increase of exercise systolic and diastolic blood pressure comparing with its resting level (p<0.001). For all study participants association of exercise systolic blood pressure level and workload can be illustrate by linear equation: for female systolic blood-pressure (mmHg) = 0.0500 x load (W) + 159.74 and for male systolic blood-pressure (mmHg) = 0.3917 x load (W) + 136.00.

During gradually increasing physical exertion systolic blood pressure is rising proportionally to increasing physical exertion. Mean values of systolic blood pressure on each level of workload had strong, linear increase. This study results can be useful in clinical practice for exercise tolerance assessment in adults and helpful for identification subjects with hypertensive response to physical exertion or hypertensive patients.