ABC | Volume 115, Nº1, July 2020

Original Article Perrier-Melo et al. Post-Exercise Hypotension: Interval Vs. Continuous Arq Bras Cardiol. 2020; 115(1):5-14 Quantitative synthesis The changes (post and pre-intervention) in clinical BP were extracted from each study and expressed as mean ± standard deviation. The data were reported as weighted mean differences (WMD) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI). The heterogeneity (I 2 ) between the studies was calculated. Values > 75% and p <0.10 were used to indicate high heterogeneity. 25 The random- effects model was adopted in the presence of low or high statistical heterogeneity. Publication bias was assessed using the funnel plot (Figure 3). The meta-analysis was performed using the Review Manager software (RevMan 5.3, Nordic Cochrane, Denmark). Two studies did not report the standard deviation values in the pre- and post-intervention moments. 26,27 In this case, the values were estimated based on the recommendations of Follman et al. 28 For this purpose, the study by Costa et al. 29 was adopted as the basis. In all analyses, the level of significance adopted was 5%. Results Included studies The search strategy identified 3,252 articles for the initial analysis. After screening the titles, abstracts and excluding duplicate results, 84 studies were selected for full-text analysis. Of these, 72 did not meet the eligibility criteria for inclusion in the study. Additionally, an unpublished study was included in the analyses. 30 Figure 1 shows the flowchart of the research results. Characteristics of participants The 12 articles included in the study analyzed clinical BP as the main outcome and none of them reported adverse effects (n = 196; age between 20-75 years; BMI between 21.2-33.0 kg/m 2 ). 26,27,29-38 Of these, three studies involved 46 normotensive individuals (n = 23 women), 26,29,34 with a mean age of 32.67 years, and mean BMI of 24.52 km/m 2 . The mean systolic and Included Eligibility Screening Identification Articles identified by searching the databases (n = 3.252) Articles selected based on the title / abstract (n = 2.652) Articles excluded based on PICOS (n=2568) Full-text articles excluded, with justification (n = 72) n = 1 (in progress) n = 8 (did not analyze BP) n = 18 (did not compare CE vs. IE) n = 22 (chronic approach) n = 6 (systematic review) n = 7 (ambulatorial BP) n = 4 (did not have an IE or CE group) n = 1 (studies with adolescents) n = 5 (PEH in 30min) Full text articles assessed for eligibility (n = 84) Studies included in the qualitative synthesis (n = 12) Studies included in the quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis) Clinical BP (n = 12) Figure 1 - PRISMAflowchart of selected studies. BP: blood pressure; CE: aerobic exercises performed continuously; IE: interval exercise; PEH: post-exercise hypotension. 7