Blood pressure measurement during aerobic exercise: subsidies for cardiac rehabilitation.

Background: Institutional documents recommend that hemodynamic variables--heart rate (HR) and systolic (SAP) and diastolic arterial pressure (DAP)--be routinely controlled at the aerobic part of supervised exercise sessions for coronary disease patients.

Objective: a) to determine the pattern and reproducibility of the blood pressure (BP) throughout 15 minutes of physical exercise at constant and moderate intensity; and b) to compare the BP measurement obtained with digital and conventional device during the exercise.

Methods: Thirty adult individuals of both sexes (65+/-11 yrs) were assessed for 15 minutes during lower-limb cycle ergometry and the BP was measured every 2 minutes, between the 3rd and the 13th minutes, using a Tango digital sphygmomanometer (Suntech, USA) and in the 14th minute, using a mercury column sphygmomanometer.