Impact of exaggerated blood pressure response in normotensive individuals on future hypertension and prognosis: Systematic review according to PRISMA guideline

Abstract

Purpose: Arterial hypertension (aHT) is the leading risk factor for morbidity and mortality worldwide. Blood pressure (BP) deviation at rest is well defined and accompanies risk for cardiovascular events and cardiovascular mortality. A growing body of evidence emphasises that an exaggerated blood pressure response (EBPR) in cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) could help to identify seemingly cardiovascular healthy and normotensive subjects, who have an increased risk of developing aHT and cardiovascular events in the future.

Materials and methods: The PubMed online database was searched for published studies reporting exercise-related BP and both the risk of aHT and cardiovascular events in the future.

Results: We identified 18 original studies about EBPR in CPET, which included a total of 35,151 normotensive individuals for prediction of new onset of aHT in the future and 11 original studies with 43,012 enrolled subjects with the endpoint of cardiovascular events in the future. Although an EBPR under CPET is not well defined, a large number of studies emphasise that EBPR in CPET is associated with both new-onset aHT and cardiovascular events in the future.

Conclusions: A growing number of studies support the hypothesis that EBPR in CPET may be a diagnostic tool to identify subjects with an elevated risk of developing aHT and cardiovascular events in the future.

Keywords: Blood pressure response; Cardiopulmonary exercise testing; Ergometry; Exercise hypertension; Treadmill.