Physical activity is known to have beneficial effects on prevention of cardiovascular disease. The regular aerobic exercise is associated with higher central arterial compliance, but its effect on peripheral arterial compliance is controversial. The aim of our study was to measure the small artery compliance and its changes provoked by 0.1Hz breathing and mental stress in young healthy males.

Experiments were performed on 21 healthy adults, 19–24 years old (12 physically trained - group A, 11 sedentary controls - group B). We measured ECG, arterial blood pressure and finger artery compliance at rest, 3 minutes during 0.1Hz breathing and 3 min during mental stress. A noninvasive method was used to measure finger artery compliance, compliance index (CI) was calculated. Baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) was determined using the sequential method.

Our results revealed elevated CI in group A compared to group B (3.42 ± 0.30 and 1.28 ± 0.31, p=0.004) at rest, but no significant differences in CI between groups during both physiological stimuli. CI decreased during 0.1Hz breathing (1.53 ±0.20, p=0.003) and mental stress (0.87 ±0.13, p=0.002) in group A, but only during mental stress in group B (0.59 ±0.12, p=0.03). BRS did not differ between groups, but was significantly reduced in both groups during mental stress. There were no differences in heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure between groups, neither at rest nor during stimuli.

We conclude that regular aerobic exercise increases peripheral arterial compliance. Surprisingly the increase was not associated with a greater BRS indicating that peripheral mechanisms govern peripheral arterial properties.