Hafeezullah Wazir Ali, Muhammad Aslam, Sohail Aziz, Muhammad Mazhar Hussain, Farmanullah Wazir.
Effect of endurance exercise on brain natriuretic peptide (BNP).
Khyber Med Uni Med J Jan ;5(2):66-70.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of maximal exercise on the level ofbrain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and cardiac adaptive changes in endurancetrained elite athletes and sedentary healthy subjects. METHODOLOGY: This Cross-sectional comparative study was conductedat Army Medical College in collaboration with Armed ForcesInstitute of Cardiology (AFIC) Rawalpindi. Twenty two elite enduranceathletes (Long Distance Runners) and 22 matching sedentary (from sameunit having no sports activity) controls were selected by convenience(non-probability) sampling technique. Height, body weight, blood pressure,pulse rate and ECG were recorded. The blood was drawn fromantecubital vein for measuring BNP and aldosterone before exerciseand again after exercise. The echocardiography of left ventricle wasdone to measure the end-diastolic internal diameter (LVIDd), diastolicinterventricular septal thickness (IVSTd), and diastolic posterior wallthickness (PWTd). The left ventricular mass (LVM) was calculated byDevereux formula. The data were recorded in a proforma and analyzedby SPSS version 10. RESULTS: It was observed that the heart rate and blood pressure ofathletes were significantly less than the controls (p<0.001); while LVIDd,IVST, PWTd, and LVM was greater in athletes than controls (p<0.001).Pre-exercise BNP level was 45.29+18.69 pmol/l & 34.16+13.74 pmol/lwhile post-exercise BNP level was 58.32+19.65 pmol/l & 43.638+11.82pmol/l in athletes and controls respectively (p<0.01). Pre-exerciseAldosterone level was 15.34+2.77 ng/dl & 13.05+2.134 ng/dl whilepost-exercise BNP level was 16.01+2.14 ng/dl & 14.65+2.30 ng/dl inathletes and controls respectively (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The maximal exercise increases the level of BNP inelite athletes significantly.

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