PECULIARITIES OF THE BLOOD PRESSURE PROFILE IN ATHLETES WITH OFFICE PREHYPERTENSION IN THE PREPARATORY PERIOD OF THE ANNUAL TRAINING MACROCYCLE
Authors: Ataman Yurii , Brizhata Iryna , Pryimenko Lina , Simonenko Iryna 
Published: February 2023

Introduction. The problem of raising blood pressure in athletes is still relevant, given the high prevalence of latent hemodynamic disorders and conditions such as overtraining and autonomic dysfunction. Outpatient monitoring of blood pressure allows to supplement the clinical picture in athletes with autonomic dysfunction to identify hidden hemodynamic disorders of athletes with pre-pathological conditions, including chronic stress, overtraining, and prehypertension.
Materials and Methods. The study included 30 healthy athletes who were divided into two groups depending on the presence of higher normal blood pressure. The groups were matched for age, gender, and duration of sports history. Blood pressure measurements were performed in the office by the oscillometric method using appropriate cuff size, depending on the shoulder circumference, and according to the standardized protocol for measuring blood pressure in the office and by outpatient monitoring. Surveys were conducted in the preparatory period of the annual training macrocycle in compliance with the requirements of bioethics.
Results. We found that athletes with higher normal blood pressure had more common symptoms that impaired quality of life and physical performance: feeling tired after training, dissatisfaction with the training task, reduced tolerance to temperature changes; this group of athletes had a significantly higher index of autonomic dysfunction (p ˂ 0.05). Daily monitoring of blood pressure revealed five people (33%) with latent ("masked") hypertension in the group of higher normal blood pressure vs. 0 people in the group of optimal blood pressure. The higher normal blood pressure group was characterized by the predominance of the weighted average day, night, daily systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean blood pressure. The average pulse pressure during the day in both groups was identical; however, at night, the decrease in pulse pressure average values was not significant in the higher normal blood pressure group in contrast to the group of normal optimal blood pressure, due to which the difference for this indicator between the two groups reached statistical significance. In addition, the night time in the group of higher normal blood pressure was characterized by a decrease in heart rate variability with a decrease in Circadian Heart Rate Index; a much smaller number of people had a Deeper profile of blood pressure, while a third of participants belonged to the Non-Deeper category; one athlete showed an increase in blood pressure at night. The inverse relationship was established concerning the level of the maximum rise of systolic blood pressure at night and the percentage decrease in nocturnal systolic blood pressure. In our opinion, all this suggests the excessive activity of sympathetic influences in athletes with office higher normal blood pressure due to excessive physical activity.
Conclusion. One-third of athletes with higher normal office blood pressure was found to have hidden ("masked") hypertension. Given the period of training of athletes, history, and blood pressure profile, the assumption can be made about the importance of dysfunctional fatigue in the development of changes in hemodynamics. Further studies are needed to study the dynamics of blood circulation in the correction of training load in people with signs of overtraining and autonomic dysfunction.