Key result
Lifelong physical activity shows no link to resting LV structure or function in postmenopausal women.
Why the study?
Cardiovascular disease risk increases significantly after menopause, prompting this assessment of the impact of different physical activity levels on cardiac structure and function.
Does lifelong habitual physical activity improve resting echocardiographic measures of cardiac morphology and function in postmenopausal women?
Cross-Sectional (n=34)
Single-blind
No
Does lifelong habitual physical activity improve resting echocardiographic measures of cardiac morphology and function in postmenopausal women?
Lifelong physical activity improves aerobic capacity in postmenopausal women, but this is not reflected by differences in resting cardiac dimensions or echocardiographic function when accounting for fat-free mass.
Activity-driven VO2 max gains lack corresponding resting LV changes; hypothesis-generating for exercise effects on cardiac reserve or outcomes.
The risk of cardiovascular disease increases significantly after menopause. We sought to assess the impact of different activity levels on cardiac structure and function in postmenopausal women. We grouped age‐similar, postmenopausal women by self‐reported physical activity levels over two decades. The study involved 34 women (age 61 ± 1 years; 11 ± 2 postmenopausal years; body mass index 23 ± 3 kg/m 2 ) categorized into three activity tiers: sedentary (SED; ≤1 h exercise weekly; n = 9); moderately active (MOD; ≥2 ≤6 h low/moderate intensity exercise weekly; n = 11) and highly active (HIGH; >4 h of moderate/high intensity exercise weekly; n = 14). Maximum oxygen uptake (VO 2 max) differed significantly ( p < 0.05) between the groups (24.9 ± 5.8; 30.5 ± 5.8; 38.4 ± 4.4 mL O 2 /kg/min; SED, MOD and HIGH respectively). Conversely, there were no differences ( p > 0.05) in height, Total fat‐free mass, body surface area or in echocardiographic measures of left ventricular (LV) morphology, systolic function, diastolic function and right ventricular function. Contrary to our hypothesis, these findings reveal that marked differences in activity level and VO 2 max are not reflected in measures of LV morphology or echocardiographic indicators of cardiac diastolic or systolic function in postmenopausal women of similar body size.
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Fischer et al. (2024) conducted a cross-sectional in Healthy postmenopausal state (n=34). Habitual physical activity vs. Sedentary activity level (≤1 h weekly light exercise) was evaluated on Echocardiographic measures of left ventricular morphology, systolic function, and diastolic function at rest (p=>0.05). Despite marked differences in VO2 max, varying lifelong physical activity levels in postmenopausal women did not result in significant differences in resting left ventricular morphology, systolic function, or diastolic function.
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