A17747 Changes in Parameters of Arterial Stiffness with Posture in Hypertensive patients with and without Anti-Hypertensive treatment

Abstract

Objectives: To determine and compare differences in postural variation for arterial stiffness between hypertensive patients with and without medication Methods: Postural variations of parameters of arterial stiffness are measured in hypertensive patients with medication (41 subjects) and without medication (15 subjects). Operator index, central aortic systolic pressure (ASP), central aortic pulse pressure (APP), Augmentation Index (AI) and brachial systolic pressure (SP) and brachial diastolic pressure (DP) were measured in supine and sitting positions. Hypertensive subjects were chosen based on their ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and had brachial blood pressure above 140/90 mmHg on at least two separate occasions in clinic. The BP characteristics were obtained through SphygmoCor device between 8am to 10am on supine position. After three minutes, values in sitting position were obtained. Informed verbal consent was obtained from all participants and ethics approval was taken before the start of the study. Differences between BP characteristics in supine and sitting were compared using non-parametric paired test of Wilcoxon Signed-rank test. Differences in BP characteristics amongst the different groups of subjects were analysed using Man Whitney U test. A p < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant in both tests Results: Statistically significant decrement in APP (38 (35–54 vs 38 (31–48), p = 0.0058) and significant increment in DP (74 (69–83) vs 76 (69–87), p = 0.023) was observed in hypertensive subjects. (Table 1) Conclusion: Postural variation had an effect on APP and DP in hypertensive subjects on anti-hypertensive medications but no effect in subjects off medications. While a postural variations of AI were noted on medications compared to subjects off medication, this was not statistically significant