Different cardiovascular responses to exercise training in hypertensive women receiving β-blockers or angiotensin receptor blockers: A pilot study

ABSTRACT

Aim

To verify the influence of β-blockers or angiotensin receptor blockers on cardiovascular responses to exercise training in hypertensive post-menopausal women.

Methods

Postmenopausal women were allocated into: healthy control group (CON; n = 9); angiotensin receptor blockers users (ARB; n = 19); and β-adrenergic blockers users (BB; n = 19). Before and after 12 weeks of combined (aerobic and resistance) exercise training they were evaluated by: heart rate (HR) and its variability (HRV), blood pressure (BP) under stress (Cold pressor and Stroop color tests), and ambulatorial BP and its variability.

Results

In ambulatorial BP analysis only in ARB group awake systolic BP decreased (p = .011; ARB: From 122 ± 11 to 117 ± 9; BB: From 118 ± 7 to 114 ± 5; CON: From 121 ± 7 to 127 ± 11 mmHg). There were time effects in BP reactivity to stress, where BP reactivity after Stroop color and Cold pressor test decreased in all groups. In BP variability analysis, only BB group has significative decreased values in systolic SD24 (p = .007; ΔARB = −0.3 ± 2.0; ΔBB = −1.3 ± 2.0; ΔCON = 0.8 ± 1.7 mmHg) and SDdn (p = .006; ΔARB = −0.2 ± 1.6; ΔBB = −1.3 ± 2.0; ΔCON = 0.4 ± 2.1 mmHg). HRV analysis demonstrated that post-training, only in BB group LF/HF decreased (p = .001; ΔARB = 0.1 ± 0.8; ΔBB = −0.4 ± 1.5; ΔCON = 1.0 ± 1.7).

Conclusion

ARB present pronounced responses in awake ambulatorial systolic BP, while β-blockers users present greater responses in BP variability. Besides that, exercise can mitigate BP reactivity to stress with no differences between groups. Lastly, there were no major differences in HRV.

Trial registry at “Clinicaltrials.gov”

NCT03529838

KEYWORDS:

• Aerobic exercise
• resistance exercise
• blood pressure
• hypertension
• blood pressure variability
• heart rate variability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, IMM, upon reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Brazilian government through the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ) under grants MCTI/CNPQ UNIVERSAL 14/2014 and 456443/2014-2; and the Minas Gerais Research Funding Foundation (FAPEMIG) under grant APQ-00750-14