Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

Abstract

ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND:
There are many circulatory changes that occur during exercise including the stimulatory effects on the circulation by the mass sympathetic discharge, the increased arterial pressure and cardiac output.
OBJECTIVE:
To investigate the effect of aging process on the heart rate and blood pressure responses during exercise in normal Iraqi male subjects.
METHODS:
The subjects involved in the study were normal healthy people, their total number was 80 persons all of them were males. They were grouped into three age groups; 20 ≤ 29 years, 30 ≤ 39 years and 40 ≤ 50 years. Each subject performed the exercise on motor driven treadmill device. Testing was conducted at The Medical City Teaching Hospital-Treadmill and Echo unit. Blood pressure was measured indirectly by auscultation. The heart rate was determined by ECG.
RESULT:
There was a significant differences in heart rate after the exercise between the three age groups, a significant differences in systolic blood pressure after the exercise between group2 and group3 was also noted, a non significant decrease in diastolic blood pressure among the three age groups and there was a significant increase in mean blood pressure between group2 and group3.
CONCLUSION:
There was a negative linear correlation between heart rate after the exercise and increasing age, while a positive linear correlation between systolic blood pressure and increasing age was found and there was a positive linear correlation between age and the mean blood pressure after the exercise.