Objective: The cardiovascular interaction responses to exercise testing have been widely investigated in patients with cardio-cerebrovascular disease. However, little is known regarding cardiovascular stiffness in response to exercise in healthy adults. We therefore sought to study alterations in cardiovascular coupling and investigate gender-influences in young healthy adults after exercise testing.
Methods: Eighty young healthy medical graduate students were studied. The left ventricular function, structure and blood flow were measured by echocardiograph at rest and exercise, and the following variables were calculated: left ventricular end-systolic and diastolic elastance (Ees and Ed), arterial elastance (Ea), ventricular - vascular coupling index (VVI) and total stiffness index (TSI).
Results: During exercise, the Ed, Ees, Ea and TSI were all shown significant increase, but VVI was no difference compared at rest. Both at rest and exercise, Ed, VVI and TSI had significantly higher in women than in men. Furthermore, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed the difference Ed, Ees, Ea, STI and VVI between rest and exercise and VVI was the smallest. Ed, Ees and Ea were correlated with TSI, RPP, E/e and EF only in women.
Conclusions: Exercise led to synchronously increasing in ventricular and arterial stiffness, and ventriculoarterial coupling was maintained. The exercise intolerance was lower in women than in men.