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Impact of Prolonged Sitting on Peripheral and Central Vascular Health

Credeur DP, Miller SM, Jones R, Stoner L, Dolbow DR, Fryer SM, Stone K, McCoy SM
The American Journal of Cardiology 2018 123(2):260-266

Bibliography

PubMed
PMID 30409414
DOI
10.1016/j.amjcard.2018.10.014
Funding
Not stated in the abstract. The full text of this paper could not be located despite request; this field could not be independently verified and should be re-checked if the full text becomes available.
Competing interests
Not stated in the abstract. The full text of this paper could not be located despite request; this field could not be independently verified and should be re-checked if the full text becomes available.

Study snapshot

DesignControlled human physiological experiment (within-subjects, pre/during/post measurement)
ModelHealthy adults, relatively free of overt disease
Sample20 participants (mean age 26 +/- 7 years; BMI 30 +/- 7 kg/m2; 7 female)
Intervention3 hours of uninterrupted sitting
DurationSingle session; measurements pre-sitting, during sitting, and post-sitting
EndpointsFlow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the posterior tibial artery; Low-flow mediated constriction (vasoconstrictor function); Microvascular function (hyperaemic blood velocity area-under-curve); Aortic pulse wave velocity and augmentation index (central arterial stiffness)

What the study showed, in plain terms

This study put 20 healthy adults through 3 hours of uninterrupted sitting and measured their blood vessels before and after. Both the leg arteries and the larger central arteries showed measurable declines in vascular health: the ability of the leg's posterior tibial artery to widen in response to increased blood flow dropped, small-vessel (microvascular) blood flow response dropped, and the aorta became measurably stiffer. The vessels' ability to constrict, however, wasn't affected, suggesting sitting specifically blunts the vessel's ability to relax and widen (a nitric-oxide-dependent process) rather than affecting vascular tone in general.

Key findings

  • After 3 hours of uninterrupted sitting, flow-mediated dilation of the posterior tibial (leg) artery decreased significantly (0.5mm pre-sit vs 0.3mm post-sit, p=0.014).
  • Microvascular function (hyperaemic blood velocity) decreased significantly after sitting (2,196 vs 1,157 arbitrary units, p=0.003).
  • Aortic pulse wave velocity, a marker of central arterial stiffness, increased significantly after sitting (5.7 vs 6.1 m/s, p=0.009), indicating stiffer central arteries.
  • Vasoconstrictor function (low-flow mediated constriction) was not significantly affected by sitting, suggesting the impairment is specific to vasodilatory (nitric-oxide-dependent) function rather than vascular tone generally.

What this study can and cannot tell us

This entry was built from the PubMed abstract only because the full text could not be obtained despite request; funding and competing interests have not been independently verified. The study is small (n=20), single-session, and conducted in relatively healthy adults with above-average BMI; it does not establish whether these acute changes translate into long-term vascular disease risk, nor whether regular movement breaks fully reverse the effect.

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Dr. Khaled Mahmoud, MBBChCritical Care Medicine, Longevity Science & Editorial Direction Dr. Amr Yasser, PhDCardiometabolic, Musculoskeletal, Gut & Bioavailability Dr. Abdulla Mostafa, PhDCellular Senescence, Neurological, Mitochondrial & Brain-Ageing Biology