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Ultra-endurance sports have no negative impact on indices of arterial stiffness

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Abstract

Purpose

Marathon running has been linked with higher arterial stiffness. Blood pressure is a major contributor to pulse wave velocity (PWV). We examined indices of arterial stiffness with a blood pressure-independent method in marathon runners and ultra-endurance athletes.

Methods

Male normotensive amateur runners were allocated to three groups according to former participation in competitions: group I (recreational athletes), group II (marathon runners) and group III (ultra-endurance athletes). Indices of arterial stiffness were measured with a non-invasive device (VaSera VS-1500N, Fukuda Denshi, Japan) to determine the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI, primary endpoint) and brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV). Lifetime training hours were calculated. Cumulative competitions were expressed as marathon equivalents. Linear regression analysis was performed to determine predictors for CAVI and baPWV.

Results

Measurements of arterial stiffness were performed in 51 subjects (mean age 44.6 ± 1.2 years): group I (n = 16), group II (n = 19) and group III (n = 16). No between-group differences existed in age, anthropometric characteristics and resting BP. CAVI and baPWV were comparable between all groups (P = 0.604 and P = 0.947, respectively). In linear regression analysis, age was the only independent predictor for CAVI (R 2 = 0.239, β = 0.455, P = 0.001). Systolic BP was significantly associated with baPWV (R 2 = 0.225, β = 0.403, P = 0.004).

Conclusions

In middle-aged normotensive athletes marathon running and ultra-endurance sports had no negative impact on arterial stiffness.

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Abbreviations

A-wave:

Late diastolic filling velocity

baPWV:

Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity

BMI:

Body mass index

BP:

Blood pressure

CAVI:

Cardio-ankle vascular index

CV:

Cardiovascular

e′:

Peak septal mitral annular velocity

E-wave:

Peak early filling velocity

LV:

Left ventricular

PWV:

Pulse wave velocity

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the subjects’ participation in this study. Moreover, we thank René Krause for athletes’ recruitment, Yanlei Li for her technical instruction with the VaSera device and David Herzig for supporting us with the arterial stiffness measurements. We appreciate the intellectual input and critical review of the manuscript by Prisca Eser (PhD).

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

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Correspondence to Matthias Wilhelm.

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Communicated by David C. Poole.

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Radtke, T., Schmidt-Trucksäss, A., Brugger, N. et al. Ultra-endurance sports have no negative impact on indices of arterial stiffness. Eur J Appl Physiol 114, 49–57 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-013-2753-1

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