| The
purpose of this study was to compare large and small arterial elasticity
in apparently healthy sedentary and recreationally active adult women,
and to examine if age affects large and small arterial elasticity.
This cross-sectional study consisted of 43 premenopausal women without
overt cardiovascular disease (age = 43.4 ± 4.7 yrs; mean ± SD). The
subjects were grouped into a sedentary group or a leisurely active
group (30 min, 3d wk of low intensity) in addition to the following
age groups: 35-40 years, n = 13; 41-45 years, n = 14; 46-54 years,
n = 16. Subjects rested supine while pulse contour analysis was measured
from the radial artery using an HDI/Pulsewave CR-2000 instrument (Hypertension
Diagnostic, Inc.) to examine arterial elasticity in the large and
small arteries. Activity level and menopausal status was based on
self-report. There were no differences in large (14.5 ± 1.0 ml/mmHg
x 10; 14.9 ± 0.9 ml/mmHg x 10; mean ± SD) and small (5.5 ± 0.5 ml/mmHg
x 100; 6.4 ± 0.4 ml/mmHg x 100) arterial elasticity between the sedentary
group and the recreationally active group, respectively. Large (12.8
± 0.9 ml/mmHg x 10) arterial elasticity was lower in the oldest group
(p = 0.008) compared to the youngest group (17.6 ± 5.9 ml/mmHg x 10).
After adjusting for body mass index, large arterial elasticity (p
= 0.022) remained lower in the oldest group. There was a trend for
small arterial elasticity to be lower in the older group compared
to the young group (p = 0.063). There was no difference in large and
small arterial elasticity between healthy sedentary and recreationally
active premenopausal women. This suggests that more strenuous physical
activity may be necessary to gain beneficial effects on the vasculature.
Large arterial elasticity is decreasing with advancing age independent
of body mass index.
KEY
WORDS: Arterial elasticity, premenopausal, body mass index,
sedentary.
|
