Exercise blood pressure response and skeletal muscle vasodilator capacity in normotensives with positive and negative family history of hypertension

OBJECTIVE: To study exercise blood pressure response in association with exercising muscle maximal vasodilatory capacity in normotensives with a positive and negative family history of hypertension. SUBJECTS: Twenty-eight normotensive healthy subjects were recruited. Of these, two females and 13 males had a positive, and three females and 10 males had a negative, family history of hypertension. METHODS: Both groups of subjects rode a bicycle ergometer while systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were measured at 30%, 60% and peak oxygen uptake rate. The vasodilatory capacity was examined in the lower leg by measuring the minimal vascular resistance during peak reactive hyperemia after 10 min arterial occlusion. RESULTS: Age, body weight, resting blood pressure, peak oxygen uptake rate and casual lower leg vascular resistance were not significantly different between the two groups of subjects. Significantly higher exercise systolic blood pressure (9%) and diastolic blood pressure (9%) were seen in the subjects with positive family history of hypertension compared with the subjects with negative family history of hypertension. Exercise heart rate was significantly higher in the subjects with negative than in those with positive family history of hypertension. The vascular resistance at peak vasodilation was 22% higher in the subjects with positive than in the subjects with negative family history of hypertension. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the dynamic exercise blood pressure is exaggerated and skeletal muscle vasodilatory capacity is limited in normotensives with genetic risk of hypertension. This suggests that the higher pressor response to physical stress that is found in normotensives with a family history of hypertension may be attributed to the resistance vessels in the exercising muscle.