Impaired exercise tolerance is associated with increased urine albumin excretion in the early stages of essential hypertension

Background: Our aim was to investigate the relationship between impaired exercise capacity and albumin excretion level in the setting of never treated essential hypertension. Design and methods: For this purpose, 338 consecutive essential hypertensives (52 ± 8.5 years, 227 males, office BP = 148.6/96.1 mmHg) performed a negative for myocardial ischemia, maximal treadmill exercise testing and were classified based on the gender specific median value of the amount of metabolic equivalents (METs) achieved (10.1 ml/kg/min for women and 11 ml/kg/min for men) as fit ( n = 177) and unfit ( n = 161). All the participants underwent 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring, complete echocardiographic study inc…