Effect of high intensity interval training on arterial stiffness in obese hypertensive women: a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: High-intensity in-terval training (HIIT) has been linked to a low-er risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. The study's overarching goal is to evaluate the impact of HIIT on arterial stiffness in obese hy-pertensive women.PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty obese hypertensive women aged between 40-50 years were randomized to group A (Interven-tion group, n = 30) or group B (Control group, n = 30). Intervention group received HIIT (4 minutes of cycling at 85-90% of peak HR in-terspersed with 3-minute active recovery time at 60 -70% of peak HR, three times per week). Arteriovenous stiffness indicators, the aug-mentation index corrected for heart rate 75 (AIx@75HR), and oscillometric pulse wave ve-locity (o-PWV), as well as cardio-metabolic parameters, were assessed before and after 12 weeks of treatment.RESULTS: Finding between-group analysis showed a significant difference in AIx@75HR (95% CI:-8.45 to 0.30) , o-PWV ( 95% CI:-1.14 to 0.15), total cholesterol, (95% CI:-31.25 to-1.12), HDL-cholesterol (95% CI: 8.92 to 0.94), LDL-cho-lesterol (95% CI:-25.35 to-0.06) , and triglycerides (95% CI:-53.58 to-2.51).CONCLUSIONS: High-intensity interval train-ing for 12 weeks has a favorable effect on arte-rial stiffness in obese hypertensive women and lowers associated cardio-metabolic risk factors.