Effects of Isometric Handgrip Exercise on Blood Pressure and its role in Identifying Hypertensive Risk Individuals

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Hypertension is a long term medical conditionin which blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevatedand it is a major health care burden. Long standing hypertensionleads to cardiovascular complications and cerebrovascularaccidents. It also causes neuronal disturbances affecting theautonomic nervous system. Isometric handgrip exercise testis a non-invasive physiological test which is done using ahandgrip dynamometer. It can be used to detect the impairmentin the autonomic activity which is seen in individuals who areprone to develop hypertension in the future. Thus, the aim ofthe present study was to assess the efficacy of isometric handexercise on blood pressure in identification of hypertensiverisk individuals and also to determine the role of handgripDynamometer in identifying hypertensive risk individuals.Material and methods: The present study was a cross-sectionalstudy done among 100 healthy normotensive individuals wastaken in the study. All participants were apparently healthy atthe time of isometric handgrip test. Cardiovascular parameterslike systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and heartrate were measured before the exercise after following allstandard precautions. The subjects were asked to perform theisometric handgrip exercise using the handgrip dynamometer.Blood pressure was recorded at three occasions– before thetest, during the test and 5 minutes after the test.Results: In the present study, out of 100 individuals, themean age was found to be 55 years among the hypertensiveindividuals. The mean weight was found to be around 78.4±15.0. The mean value of height was found to be 1.42± 0.06.The mean value of increase in SBP and the DBP duringisometric handgrip exercise was significantly higher than thebaseline values. The mean difference for SBP was 9.85 withp value 0.0003 which was observed to be highly significant.Conclusion: Isometric handgrip exercise test was found to beuseful as a screening test in identification of individuals at riskof developing hypertension.