Transcranial Doppler monitoring in hypertensive patients during physical exercise

Purpose:To evaluate the diagnostic value of a combined method, i.e. ergometer cycling with continuous bilateral transcranial Doppler monitoring (TCD) to detect cerebral hemodynamic abnormalities in recently diagnosed hypertensive patients. Methods: 30 neurologically symptom-free, nontreated patients with essential hypertension and 30 age- and sex-matched controls were studied. Carotid ultrasound, resting ECG and blood parameters were investigated. Cycling ergometry was performed according to the WHO protocol. Blood pressure, heart rate, end-tidal CO2 (etCO(2)) and bilateral middle cerebral artery (MCA) blood flow velocity (MV) were monitored. Results: At rest, MV in the MCA did not differ significantly between controls and hypertensive subjects. MV continuously increased in controls until the end of loading whereas a plateau was reached at 4 min in hypertensive subjects. During 6 min of cycling, the time course of absolute values of MV in the MCA and that of the changes in the ratio of mean velocity/end-tidal CO2 (Delta MV/Delta etCO(2)) differed significantly between hypertensive subjects and controls (p = 0.03 and p = 0.02, respectively). Conclusion: Ergometer cycling combined with TCD revealed altered vasoreactivity, therefore this may be a sensitive method for the detection of early hemodynamic impairment in nontreated hypertensive subjects. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.