Continuous recording of intra-arterial blood pressure during graded bicycle ergometry and stair climbing in essential hypertension.

Abstract

Ambulatory intra-arterial blood pressure monitoring was used to record blood pressure during graded exercise on a bicycle ergometer and during stair climbing in 6 normotensive subjects, 19 patients with untreated uncomplicated hypertension and 8 patients with untreated hypertension and ECG evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy. Exercise was performed on the bicycle ergometer at 250, 400, 700 and 1,000 kpm/min and each subject also climbed a maximum of 160 stairs. Bicycle ergometry was associated with an increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and in patients with uncomplicated hypertension the levels of pressure attained were high. Stair climbing produced an increase limited mainly to systolic blood pressure, and in some subjects was followed by a secondary increase in both systolic and diastolic pressure during the recovery period. The blood pressure response to bicycle ergometry and stair climbing was generally similar in normotensive and hypertensive subjects but the increase in pressure was greatest in the patients with uncomplicated hypertension.