Effects of whole body vibration and resistance exercise on carotis intima media thickness and muscle architecture in patients with hypertension

Our study was planned to investigate the effects of whole body vibration exercises and strengthening exercises on hemodynamic responses, carotid intima media thickness, quadriceps femoris muscle strength and architecture in hypertensive patients. A total of 47 patients diagnosed with stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension, aged between 30 and 59, were included in our study. The patients were divided into whole body vibration exercise group (WBVE), strengthening exercise group (SE), whole body vibration and strengthening exercise group (WBVE+SE) and control group (CG). Exercise were carried out 3 days a week for 6 weeks. Exercise protocol; it consists of squat, mini squat, mini squat on toes, right and left forward stepping positions. In the WBVE, the exercises were performed in a static exercise and 3 sets of 30-60 seconds of duration, and in the WBVE+SE and SE, the exercises were performed in a dynamic exercise and 3 sets of 15 repetitions of duration. Demographic data of the patients, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), heart rate (HR), saturation, respiratory frequency (RF), carotid intima media thickness (CIMT), quadriceps femoris muscle strength, and muscle architecture (muscle thickness, muscle pennation angle, muscle cross-sectional area) was evaluated. A significant improvement was shown in SBP, DBP, saturation, quadriceps femoris muscle strength and muscle architecture parameters in WBVE, SE and WBVE+SE groups, HR parameter in the SE group, SF and CIMT parameters in the WBVE and WBVE+SE groups (p<0.05). When the effects of the groups were compared, it was determined that the WBVE, SE and WBVE+SE groups were statistically more effective than the CG (p <0.0083). Except for the right vastus medialis muscle pennation angle, no statistically significant difference was detected between the WBVE, SE and WBVE+SE groups in other evaluation parameters (p>0.083). Our results showed that TVVE and CE training for hypertensive patients were effective and applicable exercise approaches in reducing SBP, DBP, HR, SF and CIMT, increasing saturation and lower extremity muscle strength, and improving quadriceps femoris muscle architecture. It was also found that the combined training increases the effect in terms of many evaluation parameters.