Antihypertensive Treatment Fails to Control Blood Pressure During Exercise

See related article, pp 102–109 Exercise-induced hypertension in humans is a clinical observation that has a 5-year prognosis to develop into essential hypertension; when observed during moderate exercise intensity it is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events and mortality.1 To my knowledge, Chant et al2 evaluated for the first time, whether patients on antihypertensives with controlled hypertension at rest exhibit exercise-induced hypertension during exercise. Because a hypersensitive metaboreflex was recently confirmed to be a major factor in the hypertensive response to exercise in patients with untreated hypertension3 and in spontaneously hypertensive rats,4 investigators have been evaluating the exercise pressor reflex sensitivity of the recruited subjects using a postexercise ischemia challenge, after isometric handgrip exercise. During the progressive increase in the intensity of dynamic exercise, the increase in pressure among subjects of (1) controlled; (2) uncontrolled; and (3) untreated resting …