title: Serum thyrotropin levels and blood pressure response to exercise in a population-based study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Studies on the relation between thyroid function and exercise blood pressure (EBP) are rare and not population-based, and have yielded inconsistent results. The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum thyrotropin (TSH) levels are related to increased EBP.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional data from 1438 subjects (711 women) aged 25-83 years without histories of cardiovascular diseases from the 5-year follow-up of the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-1) were analyzed. Blood pressure was measured at the 100 W stage of a symptom-limited bicycle ergometry test. Increased EBP was defined as a value above the sex- and age-specific 80th percentile of participants with serum TSH levels within the reference range (0.25-2.12 mIU/L).
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no association between serum TSH levels and EBP after adjusting for sex, age, waist circumference, diabetes mellitus, smoking status, and antihypertensive medication. The odds for increased systolic EBP (odds ratio 1.24, 95% confidence interval 0.88; 1.76) and diastolic EBP (odds ratios 0.98, 95% confidence interval 0.70; 1.39) as well as for exercise-induced increase of systolic and diastolic blood pressure were not significantly different between subjects with high and low serum TSH levels within the reference range. Similar findings were found for both subjects with TSH levels below and above the reference range, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that serum TSH levels are not associated with exercise-related blood pressure response.
authors: Institute for Community Medicine, Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Greifswald, Germany. roberto.lorbeer@uni-greifswald.de
authors: Roberto
authors: R
authors: Lorbeer
authors: Marcus
authors: M
authors: Dörr
authors: Till
authors: T
authors: Ittermann
authors: Beate
authors: B
authors: Koch
authors: Ralf
authors: R
authors: Ewert
authors: Rainer
authors: R
authors: Rettig
authors: Matthias
authors: M
authors: Nauck
authors: Stephan B
authors: SB
authors: Felix
authors: Henri
authors: H
authors: Wallaschofski
authors: Henry
authors: H
authors: Völzke