Hemodynamic Responses to Graded Treadmill Exercise in Young Untreated Labile Hypertensive Patients

Twenty labile hypertensive patients and their age-matched controls were studied at rest and during five levels of treadmill exercise. Intra-arterial blood pressure, cardiac output, and various aspects of the pressure pulse wave were analyzed under these conditions. Exercise provoked diastolic hypertension in 30% of the patient group. Mean group pressure responses demonstrated an almost constant differential through all phases of the study. The validity of a previously suggested classification of labile hypertensive subjects based on resting cardiac output estimations is questioned. A differentiation of modes of adjustment to an increased pressure load was suggested from exercise measurements of arterial ejection time. Despite numerous factors affecting the measurement, first derivative of the peripheral arterial pulse correlated well with indices of ejection time and mean rate of left ventricular ejection.