Turk Kardiyol Dern Ars. 2005; 33(3): 155-160

The effect of hypertension on cardiopulmonary functions in obese women

Şennur Ünal Dayi¹, Zeynep Tartan¹, Hülya Kaşıkçıoğlu¹, Sait Terzi¹, Nurten Sayar¹, Hüseyin Uyarel¹, Tamer Akbulut¹, Alper Aydın¹, Muhammed Gündoğan¹, Neşe Çam¹

OBJECTIVES
Obesity is known to increase the incidence of hypertension. We investigated the effect of hypertension on the results of cardiopulmonary exercise test in obese women.
STUDY DESIGN
Among women who applied for routine cardiovascular examination, three groups were formed: group A consisted of 22 obese patients with body mass index (BMI) ?30 kg/m2 and stage 1 hypertension; group B consisted of 22 otherwise healthy obese women (BMI<30 kg/m2), and group C included 16 nonobese (BMI<25kg/m2) healthy individuals. Symptom-limited cardiopulmonary exercise testing was performed in all the subjects to measure walk time (WT), peak VO2 (maximal oxygen consumption), VO2 at anaerobic threshold (AT), minute ventilation (VE), peak heart rate (HR), and VE/VO2. Before and during testing, blood pressures were recorded and electrocardiographic studies were made.
RESULTS
There were no significant differences between the three groups with regard to age, the ejection fraction, and left ventricular mass index. Groups A and B did not differ with regard to BMI and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. Significant differences were found between groups A and B with regard to WT, peak VO2, AT, VE, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures measured before and after the test (p=0.0001). Compared to group C, WT (p=0.002), peak VO2 (p=0.0001), and VE (p=0.05) were significantly different in group B, whereas AT did not reach significance (p=0.189). Between the two obese groups, WT (p=0.002), peak VO2 (p=0.042), AT (p=0.005), and VE (p=0.02) differed significantly, whereas VE/VO2 did not (p=0.978).
CONCLUSION
Our data show that the presence of hypertension in obese women is an important additional risk factor for further restrictions in the functional capacity.

Keywords: Exercise/physiology; exercise test; female; heart rate; hypertension/complications; obesity/physiopathology; oxygen consumption/physiology; respiratory function tests

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