Relationship between blood pressure response during exercise and tendency to left ventricular hypertrophy

From among subjects who were examined by submaximal exercise testing in 1987, 54 were selected in order to examine the relationship between the blood pressure response during exercise and the tendency to develop left ventricular hypertrophy. Only those subjects having resting systolic blood pressure values between 120 mmHg and 140 mmHg were selected. The maximum systolic blood pressure during submaximal exercise was highly correlated with the sum of the R wave amplitude in V5 and the S wave amplitude in V1 of the resting ECG (r = 0.496, p less than 0.001, n = 54), as well as with the left ventricular mass normalized for body surface area (r = 0.609, p less than 0.005, n = 23). The maximum systolic blood pressure measured during submaximal exercise did not correlate with age or exercise duration. These results suggest that a greater blood pressure response during exercise is related to the tendency to develop left ventricular hypertrophy.