Ambulatory and successive home-based heart rate targeted aerobic training improves arterial parameters: a follow-up study in people with metabolic syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Studies demonstrated that outpatient aerobic exercise programs (aEP) can significantly decrease aortic stiffness in people with metabolic syndrome (MetS). There is some limited data that remotely supervised home-based aEP can also improve arterial stiffness in this population. We aimed to evaluate the changes in the arterial wall parameters after the 2-month ambulatory supervised aEP followed by the 6-month home-based aEP with and without targeting of heart rate (HR) by electrocardiogram (ECG) in people with MetS. METHODS: In this prospective study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05592704) 132 MetS subjects (mean age 52.44 ± 6.26 years, 54.55% female) were evaluated. At first, all subjects participated in the 2-month ambulatory supervised aEP, which consisted of 40 individual aerobic training sessions on a cycle ergometer 5 times/week for 40 min and received the recommendations for home-based training. Then the study (n = 66) and the control (n = 66) groups participated in the 6-month home-based aEP, but only the study group subjects targeted their HR using ECG monitor connected to the smartphone during workouts. Arterial stiffness parameters and carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) were evaluated in all participants at baseline and after 8 months. RESULTS: After 8 months, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (c-f PWV) significantly reduced in both groups (-12.22% in the study group vs. -7.85% in the control group, all p < .001) without a significant between-group difference (p = 0.144). A significant improvement of carotid-radial pulse wave velocity (c-r PWV) was observed only in the study group (-11.37%, p < .001, d = -0.671) with significant between-group difference (p < .001). The reduction of c-r PWV after 8 months of aEP occurred when c-r PWV at baseline was in the 2nd quartile (>7.90 m/s). A significant decrease of 3.32% in cIMT was present only in the study group (p = .032, d = -0.288). CONCLUSIONS: The combination of 2-month ambulatory supervised aEP and successive 6-month home-based aEP targeted by HR monitoring using ECG improved arterial properties in MetS subjects more than the same combination without HR targeting, leading to the greater reduction of c-r PWV and cIMT.

The combination of 2-month ambulatory supervised aEP and successive 6-month home-based aEP targeted by HR monitoring using ECG improved arterial properties in MetS subjects more than the same combination without HR targeting, leading to the greater reduction of c-r PWV and cIMT.This study foregrounds the importance of home-based training with HR targeting using ECG in people with MetS.

Prevalence of high-risk profile in middle-aged subjects with arterial hypertension: a nationwide survey.

Hypertension is the most common non-communicable disease and the leading cause of cardiovascular disease in the world. It presents an important public health challenge in both economically developed and developing countries. In 2006, the Lithuanian High Cardiovascular Risk programme was launched. The programme recruited men aged 40-54 and women aged 50-64 without overt cardiovascular disease. We analysed a group of 23,204 subjects included in the programme at the primary level. Arterial hypertension was present in 57.6% of the subjects: 63.2% in the females and 49.2% in the males. In the hypertensive middle-aged subjects, grade 1 hypertension was present in 53.1%, grade 2 in 22.4%, and grade 3 in merely 5.9% of the subjects. The prevalence of a minimum of three concomitant risk factors among the hypertensive patients was 78.0%, compared with 52.1% in the patients without hypertension (p < 0.001). Blood pressure goals were attained in 20.8% of the hypertensive women and in 14.4% of the hypertensive men. In Lithuania, a high prevalence of hypertension was characteristic of middle-aged subjects. Although the blood pressure elevation had not reached high levels, the presence of at least three risk factors concomitant to hypertension was more expressed in them compared with the non-hypertensive subjects.