Cardiovascular responses to sustained maximal isometric contractions of the finger flexors

This study investigated cardiovascular responses to 2 min sustained submaximal (20% MVC) and maximal (100% MVC) voluntary isometric contractions of the finger flexors in healthy young women. Cardiovascular variables investigated were: heart rate (f_c), mean arterial pressure ( {Mathematical expression}_a), and stroke volume (SV). Doppler echocardiography was used to estimate SV from measures of aortic diameter (AD) and time-velocity integrals. Preliminary studies indicated that AD did not change significantly after 2 min sustained 100% MVC. Therefore, pre-exercise AD values were used to calculate SV before, during and after exercise. During the 2-min 100% MVC period, f_c and {Mathematical expression}_aincreased significantly during the first 30 s of contraction. f_c then remained constant during the remainder of the 2-min contraction period, while {Mathematical expression}_acontinued to rise. SV did not change significantly during the 100% MVC task but increased significantly during recovery from sustained 100% MVC. The data suggest that the magnitude of cardiovascular responses to isometric exercise is dependent on the specific task performed, and that there is a different pattern of response for f_c, {Mathematical expression}_a, and SV during 20% and 100% MVC tasks. Unlike f_c and {Mathematical expression}_a, SV did not change significantly during isometric exercise, but increased significantly after sustained 100% MVC.