ARE PATIENTS WITH RESISTANT HYPERTENSION COMPLIANT WITH DAILY PHYSICAL ACTIVITY RECOMMENDATIONS?

Abstract

Objective: Objective: To describe the physical activity (PA) levels and relation with blood pressure, and endothelial function and inflammatory biomarkers in patients with resistant hypertension. Design and method: Design and Method: Sixty-six patients (age: 59 ± 1.0 yrs; gender: 50.7% men; BMI: 29.8 ± 0.6 kg/m2; number of antihypertensive medications: 4.6 ± 0.1) were recruited. Outcome measures included clinical data, ambulatory blood pressure, daily physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, circulating levels of hs C-reactive protein (hs CRP), and the levels of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), circulating endothelial cells (CECs) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) quantified by flow cytometry. Sedentary time, and time spent at light and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was assessed by accelerometers over 7 days. Correlation analysis was conducted to assess the association between variables; independent t-test was used for testing differences in blood pressure, VO2peak, hs CRP, EPCs, HSCs and CECs, according to the compliance with physical activity recommendations (< 150 versus > = 150 minutes/week of MVPA). Results: Results: Patients spent an average of 475.1 ± 75.7, 341.0 ± 35.8 and 46.4 ± 8.1 min/day in sedentary, light and moderate to vigorous PA, respectively. More than half (52.5%) of the patients met the recommended 150 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week. However, there were no differences regarding 24 h systolic and diastolic ambulatory blood pressure (p = 0.876) and (p = 0.130), VO2peak (p = 0.654), hs CRP (p = 0.381) and number of antihypertensive medications (p = 0.490) between patients that met and did not meet the PA recommendations. Sedentary time correlated positively with CECs (0.245, p = 0.05). Conclusions: Conclusions: The compliance with daily physical activity recommendations does not seem to have a major influence in blood pressure, hs CRP, and cardiorespiratory fitness of patients with resistant hypertension. Sedentary time is associated with higher endothelial injury/damage in patients with resistant hypertension. This work is financed by FEDER Funds through the Operational Competitiveness Factors Program - COMPETE and by National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the project PTDC/DTP-DES/1725/2014.