Recoverability trend of blood pressure and pulse transit time after treadmill exercise

This study examines the recoverability trend of blood pressure (BP) and pulse transit time (PTT) during the 60 minutes immediately following a treadmill exercise. Experiments were conducted on 12 healthy and normotensive subjects, including 8 males and 4 females. All subjects were directed to run on a treadmill at 10 kph for 4 minutes. BP was measured at the finger by the Finometer and also at brachial arteries by a sphygmomanometer. PTT was determined as the time interval between the peak of the R wave of electrocardiogram and the foot of photoplethysmogram. Immediate post exercise PTT is significantly lower than its preexercise baseline level (p < 0.001). During the recovery period, PTT initially increases to the original level at 9 minutes after exercise and then increases continuously, peaks at 20 minutes after exercise, and returns to the baseline at 60 minutes. Although PTT is temporarily higher than the baseline during the recovery period, the changes are not significant (p = 0.37). Immediately after exercise, both finger BP and brachial BP are significantly different from pre-exercise baseline. There is no significant difference in brachial BP by 5 minutes after exercise and in finger BP, by 9 minutes.