VO2 Max and anaerobic threshold in hypertension: a tissue Doppler study.

Background: Hypertension can impair left ventricular (LV) relaxation causing shortness of breath and reduced exercise capacity, which may affect the clinical evaluation of the symptomatic hypertensive patient. In this study we used tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) to identify correlates of anaerobic threshold (AT) and maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 Max). Our goal was to assess the feasibility of TDI as a surrogate of functional capacity in hypertensive individuals.