Radial Pulse Wave Analysis in Young Male Elite Athletes

Authors

Fernando Clara^{1, 3, *,} , José Alfie², Gustavo Blanco¹, Cecilia Resina¹, Meschino Gustavo^3, , Mariana Fita¹

¹Unidad Cardiometabólica, Centro de Especialidades Médicas Ambulatorias (CEMA), Mar del Plata, Argentina

²Unidad de Hipertensión Arterial, Servicio de Clínica Médica, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Argentina

³Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata/ CONICET, Argentina

^*Corresponding author. Email: fermclar@gmail.com

DOI

10.2991/artres.k.201208.001How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Augmentation index; central pressure; pulse wave velocity; pulse pressure; diastolic amplitude

Abstract

Background: Indicators obtained from the analysis of the radial pulse wave allow an indirect evaluation of the interaction between cardiac ejection and arterial walls.

Objectives: To analyze the characteristics of the arterial pulse in young elite athletes through a cross-sectional observational study.

Methods: We evaluated the radial pulse wave in 35 high performance young male athletes, who practice various sports, comparing them with 36 healthy men of similar ages, using the applanation tonometry technique. We computed conventional indicators of central increase in central pressure and aortic propagation velocity, and added two new indicators: the slope of the increase in radial pressure and the amplitude of the oscillatory component during diastole.

Results: In relation to controls, athletes exhibited lower heart rate (61.6 ± 9.1 vs. 71.4 ± 10.6 bpm, p < 0.001), lower pulse wave velocity (7.0 ± 1.0 vs. 7.5 ± 0.8 m/s, p < 0.001), lower diastolic blood pressure (67.6 ± 8.2 vs. 78.5 ± 7.3 mmHg, p < 0.001) and higher brachial pulse pressure (53.6 ± 8.3 vs. 46.7 ± 7.1 mmHg, p < 0.001). The systolic slope (0.70 ± 0.15 vs. 0.59 ± 0.13 mmHg/ms, p < 0.001) and the amplitude of diastolic oscillation (25.7 ± 6.4 vs. 18.4 ± 4.7%, p < 0.001) were significantly higher in athletes than in controls.

Conclusion: Young athlete presented low aortic velocity, but significantly higher systolic slope and diastolic oscillation amplitude than controls. The steeper systolic slope and the lower diastolic blood pressure could underlie a higher stroke volume and a lower peripheral resistance respectively. The greater diastolic oscillation could be the consequence of the eccentric remodeling and increased compliance of the distal arteries, in response to intense training. We propose new pulse wave parameters obtained from the analysis of the radial waveform for the assessment of the cardiovascular adaptation to intense training.

HIGHLIGHTS

• •

  Pulse wave contour of athletes is characterized by a steeper pressure slope and greater diastolic oscillation.

• •

  In contrast, traditional tonometric indicators did not differ significantly between athletes and controls.

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  The cardiovascular adaptation to high performance training could be evaluated by pulse wave analysis.

Copyright

© 2020 Association for Research into Arterial Structure and Physiology. Publishing services by Atlantis Press International B.V.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - JOUR
AU  - Fernando Clara
AU  - José Alfie
AU  - Gustavo Blanco
AU  - Cecilia Resina
AU  - Meschino Gustavo
AU  - Mariana Fita
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/12/12
TI  - Radial Pulse Wave Analysis in Young Male Elite Athletes
JO  - Artery Research
SP  - 69
EP  - 74
VL  - 27
IS  - 2
SN  - 1876-4401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/artres.k.201208.001
DO  - 10.2991/artres.k.201208.001
ID  - Clara2020
ER  -