Age and cardiorespiratory fitness are associated with arterial stiffening and left ventricular remodelling

Arterial stiffening, hypertension and left ventricular (LV) remodelling are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with cardiovascular function and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. This cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the relationships between cardiorespiratory fitness, arterial stiffness, blood pressure (BP) and LV remodelling in women. On the basis of peak oxygen uptake, a total of 159 premenopausal (young) and postmenopausal (older) women were categorized into either low (unfit) or high (fit) cardiorespiratory fitness groups. The arterial stiffness and LV remodelling were measured by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) and carotid augmentation index (AI) and LV relative wall thickness (RWT). Two-way analysis of variance indicated a significant interaction between age and cardiorespiratory fitness in baPWV, carotid AI, BP and RWT. In the older group, arterial stiffness (baPWV; 1401±231 vs 1250±125 cm s^-1, P<0.01, AI; 32.9±9.9 vs 24.8±10.1%, P<0.01), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (130±22 vs 117±15 mm Hg, P<0.01) and RWT (0.47±0.08 vs 0.42±0.04, P<0.05) in fit women were lower than in unfit women. In older women, RWT was significantly related to baPWV (r=0.46, P<0.01), carotid AI (r=0.29, P<0.05), SBP (r=0.57, P<0.01) \[Vdot]_2peak (r=0.32, P<0.05). In young women, they were not significant correlations, except for a weak correlation between RWT and SBP (r0.21, P0.05). These results suggest that higher cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with lower arterial stiffness, BP and RWT in older women.