Abstract
It is well known that cardiovascular response to exercise involves sympathetic stimulation of the heart and peripheral vessels and that β blockade interferes with adrenergic response during exercise. When a decrease in heart rate is prevented by atrial pacing, regional myocardial function and blood flow in ischemic areas tend to be more depressed after β blockade, suggesting that β blockade could unmask an α 2 adrenergic vasoconstriction, worsening regional blood flow and function. 1 An alternative hypothesis might be that β blockade modifies the relation between diastolic time and heart rate. In fact, there is also some evidence that β blockade impairs the postexercise diastolic time in patients with coronary artery disease. 2 However, this effect is not clearly explained, since ischemia alone could interfere with diastole duration. 3,4 Moreover, the effect of β blockade on diastolic time during exercise is still unknown. This study investigates the effects of β blockade on diastolic time during exercise in hypertensive patients without stress-induced myocardial ischemia.
Published Version
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