Key result
One year of progressive endurance exercise training in previously sedentary healthy seniors did not improve biologic aortic age, although it successfully reduced left ventricular afterload.
Why the study?
Does 1 year of progressive exercise training improve central aortic compliance and left ventricular afterload in healthy sedentary seniors?
Does 1 year of progressive exercise training improve central aortic compliance and left ventricular afterload in healthy sedentary seniors?
p-value: p=0.777
One year of vigorous exercise training in healthy sedentary seniors reduces left ventricular afterload primarily through increased stroke volume, but does not reverse intrinsic structural aortic stiffening.
May improve aortic compliance in sedentary elderly; leaves open reversal of age-related stiffening in larger trials.
Arteriosclerosis with aging leads to central arterial stiffening in humans, which could be a prime cause for increased cardiac afterload in the elderly. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of 1 yr of progressive exercise training on central aortic compliance and left ventricular afterload in sedentary healthy elderly volunteers. Ten healthy sedentary seniors and 11 Masters athletes (>65 yr) were recruited. The sedentary seniors underwent 1 yr of progressive exercise training so that at the end of the year, they were exercising ∼200 min/wk. Central aortic compliance was assessed by the Modelflow aortic age, which reflects the intrinsic structural components of aortic compliance. Cardiac afterload was assessed by effective arterial elastance (Ea) with its contributors of peripheral vascular resistance (PVR) and systemic arterial compliance (SAC). After exercise training, Ea, PVR, and SAC were improved in sedentary seniors and became comparable with those of Masters athletes although the Modelflow aortic age was not changed. Moreover, after exercise training, when stroke volume was restored with lower body negative pressure back to pretraining levels, the exercise training-induced improvements in Ea, PVR, and SAC were eliminated. Aortic stiffening with aging was not improved even after 1 yr of progressive endurance exercise training in the previously sedentary elderly, while left ventricular afterload was reduced. This reduced afterload after exercise training appeared to be attributable to cardiovascular functional modulation to an increase in stroke volume rather than to intrinsic structural changes in the arterial wall.
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Shibata et al. (2012) studied Healthy aging (n=21). Progressive endurance exercise training vs. Pre-training baseline and Masters athletes was evaluated on Modelflow aortic age (biologic vascular age) (p=0.777). One year of progressive endurance exercise training in previously sedentary healthy seniors did not improve biologic aortic age, although it successfully reduced left ventricular afterload.