title: Aerobic training-induced improvements in arterial stiffness are not sustained in older adults with multiple cardiovascular risk factors.
abstract: There is a well-established relationship between increased arterial stiffness and cardiovascular mortality. We examined whether a long-term aerobic exercise intervention (6 months) would increase arterial compliance in older adults with hypertension complicated by Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and hyperlipidemia. A total of 52 older adults (mean age 69.3±0.6 years, 30 males and 22 females) with diet/oral hypoglycemic-controlled T2DM, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia were recruited. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups: an aerobic group (6 months vigorous aerobic exercise, AT group) and a non-aerobic group (6 months of no aerobic exercise, NA group). Arterial stiffness was measured as pulse-wave velocity (PWV) using the Complior device. Aerobic training decreased arterial stiffness as measured by both radial (P=0.001, 2-way analysis of variance with repeated measures) and femoral (P=0.002) PWV. This was due to a decrease in arterial stiffness in the AT group after 3 months of training, which was not maintained after 6-month training for either radial (P=0.707) or femoral (P=0.680) PWV. Our findings indicate that in older adults with multiple cardiovascular risk factors, short-term improvements in arterial stiffness became attenuated over the long term.
authors.affiliation: VITALiTY (Vancouver Initiative to Add Life to Years) Research Laboratory, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. kmmadden@interchange.ubc.ca
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Madden
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lockhart
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cuff
authors.forename: T F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Meneilly
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000503:physiopathology; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000503:physiopathology; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D063177:Pulse Wave Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D059289:Vascular Stiffness