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Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate receiver operating characteristic curves to identify optimal cutoff values of exercise systolic blood pressure (SBP) using both peak SBP and relative SBP (peak SBP minus resting SBP) as predictors of future hypertension (HTN)., Methods: Participants were 3,742 healthy normotensive men who underwent symptom-limited treadmill testing at baseline. Incident HTN was defined as SBP/diastolic blood pressure greater than 140/90 mm Hg and/or diagnosed HTN by a physician., Results: During an average 5-year follow-up, 364 (9.7%) new cases of HTN were observed. The most discriminatory cutoff values for peak SBP and relative SBP for predicting incident HTN were 181 mm Hg (areas under the curve (AUC) = 0.644, sensitivity = 54%, and specificity = 69%) and 52 mm Hg (AUC = 0.549, sensitivity = 64.3%, and specificity = 44.6%), respectively. Participants with peak SBP greater than 181 mm Hg and relative SBP greater than 52 mm Hg had 1.54-fold (95% CI: 1.23-1.93) and 1.44-fold (95% CI: 1.16-1.80) risks of developing HTN after adjusting for potential confounding variables. When these 2 variables were entered simultaneously into the Cox proportional hazards regression model with adjustment for potential confounding variables, only peak SBP (relative risk: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.02-1.89) was a predictor of the development of HTN., Conclusions: The most accurate discriminators for peak and relative SBP during treadmill exercise testing to predict incident HTN were greater than 181 and 52 mm Hg, respectively, in normotensive men. A peak SBP greater than 181 mm Hg during treadmill exercise testing may provide a useful predictor for the development of HTN in clinical practice., (© American Journal of Hypertension, Ltd 2015. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objective: To test the hypothesis that cardiorespiratory fitness modifies the association between metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) phenotype and carotid intima-media thickness., Patients and Methods: We evaluated 3838 men (mean age, 51 ± 6 years) who participated in the general health examination program at Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea, between January 2, 2008, and December 31, 2008. Participants were divided into 4 groups on the basis of body habitus and metabolic health status using the Asia-Pacific criteria. On the basis of Asian criteria, MHO was defined as body mass index greater than or equal to 25 kg/m(2) with less than 3 metabolic abnormalities. Cardiorespiratory fitness (fitness) was directly measured by using peak oxygen uptake and divided into unfit (lower tertile of fitness) and fit (middle and upper tertiles of fitness) categories on the basis of age-specific peak oxygen uptake percentiles. The prevalence of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis was defined as a mean carotid intima-media thickness greater than the 75th percentile., Results: Compared with metabolically healthy normal weight (MHNW), MHO was associated with a higher prevalence of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis (odds ratio, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.12-1.72) after adjusting for potential confounding variables. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis, we found that the MHO unfit group had 2.00 times (95% CI, 1.48-2.73) and the metabolically unhealthy obesity unfit group had 1.84 times (95% CI, 1.26-2.67) higher risk of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis as compared with the MHNW fit group (reference group). However, MHO fit (OR, 1.25; 95% CI, 0.97-1.62) and metabolically unhealthy obesity fit (OR, 1.31; 95% CI, 0.90-1.92) groups had odds ratios for subclinical carotid atherosclerosis similar to those of the MHNW fit group., Conclusion: Metabolically healthy obesity was associated with a higher prevalence of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis, but this association was attenuated by increasing levels of cardiorespiratory fitness., (Copyright © 2015 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

We investigated the relation between inflammation and incident hypertension, independent of obesity, and tested the associations of cardiorespiratory fitness (fitness) and indexes of inflammation for the development of hypertension in 2,475 normotensive men. Inflammatory markers were C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen. Fitness was directly measured by peak oxygen uptake during sign/symptom-limited treadmill exercise testing to volitional fatigue; 266 men (10.7%) developed hypertension during an average of 4 years follow-up. After adjusting for potential confounding variables, the relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for incident hypertension in those in the upper tertile versus lower tertile were 1.55 (95% CI 1.15 to 2.09) for CRP and 1.51 (95% CI 1.10 to 2.06) for fibrinogen. Although the association between fibrinogen and incident hypertension persisted after adjusting for body mass index (p = 0.049), the relation between CRP and incident hypertension was no longer statistically significant (p = 0.08). Fit men had a 27% decreased (RR 0.73, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.94) risk of incident hypertension compared with unfit men in a multivariable adjusted model. In the joint analysis, unfit men with upper CRP had 1.81 times (95% CI 1.21 to 2.70) and unfit men with upper fibrinogen had 2.03 times (95% CI 1.33 to 3.12) greater risks of incident hypertension compared with fit men with low CRP and fibrinogen, respectively. However, these risks did not significantly increase in fit men with upper CRP (RR 1.12, 95% CI 0.76 to 1.63) and fibrinogen (RR 1.26, 95% CI 0.86 to 1.85) groups. In conclusion, these results suggest that heightened levels of fibrinogen, but not CRP, are associated with incident hypertension, independent of body weight, and that high fitness attenuates the risk of incident hypertension across upper levels of inflammatory markers in men., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that blood pressure (BP) increase before exercise stress testing is associated with the incidence of hypertension in a prospective study of 3,805 normotensive men without hypertension at baseline. Changes in BP were defined as the difference between seated BP at rest and BP measured immediately before exercise stress testing. Hypertension was defined as systolic and diastolic BP ≥ 140/90 mm Hg or hypertension diagnosed by a physician at the second examination. During 18,923 patient-years of follow-up, 371 new cases of hypertension developed (incidence rate 19.6 per 1,000 patient-years). Men with systolic BP changes >0 mm Hg and diastolic BP changes >7 mm Hg had 1.70 times (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.37 to 2.12) and 2.23 times (95% CI 1.76 to 2.82) increased relative risk for incident hypertension compared with men whose systolic BP changes were <0 mm Hg and diastolic BP changes were <7 mm Hg after adjustment for confounders. Men in the highest quartile of mean BP change (>10 mm Hg) had a higher incidence of hypertension (relative risk 2.98, 95% CI 2.19 to 4.06) compared with those in the lowest quartile (<0 mm Hg), and each 1 mm Hg increment in mean BP was associated with a 6% (95% CI 1.05 to 1.09) higher incidence of hypertension after adjustment for risk factors. In conclusion, BP increase before exercise stress testing is associated with incident hypertension, independent of risk factors in normotensive men. The assessment of BP immediately before exercise testing may be a useful addition to the standard exercise stress testing procedures., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Low-cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) has been associated with incident hypertension, but whether temporal changes in CRF are associated with incident hypertension in initially normotensive subjects are not known. We investigated the relationship of baseline CRF and longitudinal changes in CRF with incident hypertension in initially normotensive subjects., Methods: Subjects were 3,831 men who participated in two health examinations during 1998-2009. All subjects were free of cardiovascular diseases and hypertension at baseline. CRF was directly measured by peak oxygen uptake using expired gas analysis during a standard treadmill test., Results: During an average of 5 years of follow-up, 373 (9.7%) subjects developed hypertension. The incidence of hypertension was inversely associated with baseline CRF quartiles [Q1 (lowest) 11.8%, Q2 10.4%, Q3 9.1%, and Q4 (highest) 7.5%; P < 0.05 for trend]. The relative risk (RR) of incident hypertension in the lowest CRF quartile versus the highest CRF quartile was 1.69 (95% CI: 1.22-2.34) after adjustment for risk factors. Each metabolic equivalent increment higher peak oxygen uptake at baseline examination was associated with 10% (RR 0.90, 95% CI: 0.83-0.98) lower incidence of hypertension in multivariate adjusted model. Subjects whose CRF decreased (<-1.18 ml/kg/min per year) over time had a 72% increased risk in developing hypertension (RR 1.72, 95% CI: 1.20-2.49) compared to subjects with increased CRF (>0.13 ml/kg/min per year) after adjustment for risk factors., Conclusion: These results demonstrate that both baseline CRF levels and changes in CRF over time were associated with the incidence of hypertension independent of risk factors., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)