Περίληψη:
BACKGROUND
Regular aerobic exercise has beneficial effects on the cardiovascular
system. Marathon running is an aerobic and extremely vigorous exercise.
Arterial stiffness and wave reflections are independent predictors of
cardiovascular risk. We investigated the acute effect of marathon race
on aortic stiffness and wave reflections, as well as possible chronic
alterations of these indexes in marathon runners.
METHODS
We studied 49 marathon runners (age 38 +/- 9 years) and 46
recreationally active control subjects (age 37 +/- 5 years). To
investigate the acute effect of marathon race, a subgroup of 20 runners
was evaluated after the race as well. Aortic stiffness was evaluated
with carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) and wave reflections with
augmentation index (AIx).
RESULTS
Marathon runners had significantly higher systolic, diastolic, pulse
(both aortic and brachial), and mean pressures compared to controls (P <
0.05 for all). Marathon runners had significantly higher PWV (6.89 m/s
vs. 6.33 m/s, P < 0.01), whereas there was no difference in AIx and AIx
corrected for heart rate (AIx@75) compared to controls (13.8% vs.
13.9%, P = 0.985 and 8.2% vs. 10.3%, P = 0.340, respectively).
Marathon race caused a significant fall in both AIx (12.2% vs. -5.8%,
P < 0.001) and AIx@75 (7.0% vs. 0.0%, P = 0.01), whereas PWV did not
change significantly (6.66 m/s vs. 6.74 m/s, P = 0.690). Aortic and
brachial systolic, diastolic, and mean pressures were also decreased (P
< 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
A significant fall in wave reflections was observed after marathon race,
whereas aortic stiffness was not altered. Moreover, marathon runners
have increased aortic stiffness and pressures, whereas wave reflections
indexes do not differ compared to controls.
Συγγραφείς:
Vlachopoulos, Charalambos
Kardara, Despina
Anastasakis, Aris and
Baou, Katerina
Terentes-Printzios, Dimitrios
Tousoulis, Dimitris
and Stefanadis, Christodoulos
