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Arterial stiffness in young adult swimmers

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Abstract

Purpose

Habitual Aerobic exercise reduces arterial stiffness, but effects of habitual swimming on arterial stiffness are not yet fully understood. Swimming can also increase systolic blood pressure (BP) in normotensive individuals. Accordingly, this cross-sectional study aimed to investigate arterial stiffness in young adult swimmers after considering the influence of BP.

Methods

Participants comprised 41 men (18–21 years), including 15 untrained controls (C), 11 competitive cyclists (aerobic-trained athletes; A), and 15 competitive swimmers (S). Arterial stiffness was assessed by brachial-ankle pulse-wave velocity (baPWV), heart-ankle pulse-wave velocity (haPWV), and cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI). CAVI is the measurement of arterial stiffness that is theoretically adjusted by BP.

Results

Although physical characteristics and handgrip strength did not differ between groups, peak oxygen uptake was significantly greater in A and S than in C. A tendency towards higher systolic BP and a significantly higher pulse pressure were found in S as compared to C and A. Most importantly, baPWV was significantly lower in A than in C or S, and no significant difference in baPWV was observed between C and S (C, 1027 ± 25; A, 852 ± 23; S, 1032 ± 24 cm/s). No significant difference in haPWV was observed. However, CAVI was significantly lower in A and S than in C, and did not differ significantly between A and S (C, 5.8 ± 0.2; A, 5.1 ± 0.2; S, 5.3 ± 0.2 unit).

Conclusion

These findings indicate that arterial stiffness in young adult swimmers is lower than in age-matched sedentary controls and similar to land-based aerobic-exercise individuals, after considering the influences of BP.

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Abbreviations

ABI:

Ankle-brachial index

A group:

Aerobic-trained athletes

ANCOVA:

Analysis of covariance

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

BMI:

Body mass index

BP:

Blood pressure

baPWV:

Brachial ankle pulse-wave velocity

CAVI:

Cardio-ankle vascular index

C group:

Untrained control men

CV:

Coefficients of variation

DBP:

Diastolic blood pressure

haPWV:

Heart ankle pulse-wave velocity

HR:

Heart rate

LBM:

Lean body mass

PP:

Pulse pressure

PWV:

Pulse-wave velocity

S group:

Competitive swimmers

SBP:

Systolic blood pressure

\(\dot{V}\)O2 peak:

Peak oxygen uptake

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank the study participants for their cooperation. This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to MN (JSPS KAKENHI Grant number JP26750345).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology, 5-16-1 Ohmiya, Asahi-Ku, Osaka, 535-8585, Japan

    Masato Nishiwaki & Keisuke Takahara

  2. Faculty of Environmental Symbiotic Sciences, Prefectural University of Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan

    Naoyuki Matsumoto

Authors
  1. Masato Nishiwaki
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  2. Keisuke Takahara
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  3. Naoyuki Matsumoto
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masato Nishiwaki.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this article. Conceived and designed the study: MN and KT. Performed the study: MN and KT. Analyzed the data: MN and KT. Wrote the paper: MN, KT, and NM. Interpreted the data: MN and NM. All authors approved the final version of the article.

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Communicated by Massimo Pagani.

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Nishiwaki, M., Takahara, K. & Matsumoto, N. Arterial stiffness in young adult swimmers. Eur J Appl Physiol 117, 131–138 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-016-3505-9

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