Effects of Age and Aerobic Capacit on Arterial Stiffness in Healthy Adults

or chronic physical endurance training affects the age-associated increase in arterial stiffness. Methods and Results. Carotid arterial pressure pulse augmentation index (AGI), using applanation tonometry, and aortic pulse wave velocity (APWV) were measured in 146 male and female volunteers 21 to 96 years old from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, who were rigorously screened to exclude clinical and occult cardiovascular disease. Aerobic capacity was determined in all individuals by measurement of maximal oxygen consumption (Vo2m.) during treadmill exercise. In this healthy, largely sedentary cohort, the arterial stiffness indexes AGI and APWV increased approximately fivefold and twofold, respectively, across the age span in both men and women, despite only a 14% increase in systolic blood pressure (SBP). These age-associated increases in AGI and APWV were of a similar magnitude to those in prior studies of less rigorously screened populations. Both AGI and APWV varied inversely with Vo2.,,,, and this relationship, at least for AGI, was independent of age. In endurance trained male athletes, 54 to 75 years old (V02,_=44+-3 mL. kg` * min'), the arterial stiffness indexes were significantly reduced relative to their sedentary age peers (AGI, 36% lower, APWV, 26% lower) despite similar blood