Acute and Chronic Cardiovascular Responses to Exercise

The cardiovascular system has been the focus of medical and scientific interest and study for many centuries, but only in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, has a clear focus area developed related to the interaction of exercise and the cardiovascular system. Early studies of the athletic heart gained traction with new imaging modalities in the early 1970s and the impact of exercise for cardiovascular health was ignited by epidemiological studies of bus drivers and conductors in the 1950s and 60s. Since then, interest and research knowledge has increased exponentially. Studies have revealed that the cardiovascular system has an exceptional ability to alter its phenotype to adapt to changes in acute and chronic (patho)physiological demands placed upon it. Cardiovascular adaptation to demand involves metabolic, electrical, structural, functional and mechanical alterations. Acute responses can be highly dynamic dependent on the nature of the demand placed on the system. Chronic changes are often referred to as cardiovascular adaptation or remodelling. Besides physiological remodelling, exercise training in clinical populations can also lead to health benefits such as improvement in risk and status in patients with cardiovascular disease. In understanding these effects, state-of-the-art technologies play a central role, such as the introduction of advanced laboratory tests, heart rate (variability) monitoring, flow mediated dilation, echocardiography, cardiac CT and MRI. Importantly, if we want to understand the chronic, or cumulative, impact of exercise training on the cardiovascular system, in any population, you must first recognise the acute responses of the system to a range of different training loads (intensity, duration and volume).



The aim of this Research Topic is to gain state-of-the-art insight into our understanding of acute and chronic cardiovascular responses to exercise, in a range of different populations. To achieve this, we aim to collect a broad range of range of manuscripts. These may comprise topics involving the cardiovascular impact of a single bout of exercise (i.e. acute response) but also the impact of repetitive bouts (i.e. chronic response). Types of exercise may range between resistance and endurance exercise. The population may include both healthy (recreative to elite athletes) and diseased patient groups. We encourage to address sex differences in your research. Thereby, we also encourage to use evolving technologies measuring cardiovascular responses.



Within this Research Topic, we are interested to publish a collection of articles (Original Research, (Systematic) Review, (Mini) Review, Study Protocol, Brief Research Report, Case Report, Perspective and Opinion) in the field of exercise physiology. Themes are covered but are not limited to:



- Acute and/or chronic cardiovascular responses to exercise

- The effect of acute and/or chronic exercise on cardiovascular health (in both healthy and clinical populations)

- How sex, age and other subject characteristics and environmental factors affect cardiovascular responses to exercise (and its translation to health benefits)

- New technologies to study cardiovascular responses to exercise