Aortic haemodynamics: the effects of habitual endurance exercise, age and muscle sympathetic vasomotor outflow in healthy men

Purpose We determined the effect of habitual endurance exercise and age on aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV), augmentation pressure (AP) and systolic blood pressure (aSBP), with statistical adjustments of aPWV and AP for heart rate and aortic mean arterial pressure, when appropriate. Furthermore, we assessed whether muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) correlates with AP in young and middle-aged men. Methods Aortic PWV, AP, aortic blood pressure (applanation tonometry; SphygmoCor) and MSNA (peroneal microneurography) were recorded in 46 normotensive men who were either young or middle-aged and endurance-trained runners or recreationally active nonrunners (10 nonrunners and 13 runners within each age-group). Between-group differences and relationships between variables were assessed via ANOVA/ANCOVA and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, respectively. Results Adjusted aPWV and adjusted AP were similar between runners and nonrunners in both age groups (all, P > 0.05), but higher with age (all, P