Effects of aging, hypertension, and diabetes on low‐frequency arterial pressure oscillations

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Low‐frequency (LF, 0.04‐0.15 Hz) oscillations of arterial pressure are associated to sympathetic activity. We measured beat‐to‐beat systolic blood pressure (SBP) and respiration for YOUNG (n=39, 34±3 yrs) and OLD (n=40, 64±6 yrs) healthy subjects and patients with hypertension (HT, n=38, 60±7 yrs), coronary artery disease (CAD, n=16, 61±4 yrs) and diabetes (CAD+DM, n=29, 60±6 yrs) at supine rest. Spectral power (LFSBPpower) and center frequency (LFSBPf) of SBP oscillations within LF band were calculated. Adaptive filtering was applied to reduce the effects of slow breaths on SBP oscillations at LF. Significant group‐effects were found in LFSBPpower (YOUNG: 4.0±2.5, OLD 6.1±3.4, HT: 5.2±3.3, CAD: 4.2±2.6 and CAD+DM: 4.1±3.0 mmHg2, p=0.014) and LFSBPf (YOUNG: 0.073±0.015, OLD: 0.064±0.011, HT: 0.068±0.011, CAD: 0.054±0.007 and CAD+DM: 0.056±0.010 Hz, p<0.001). OLD had higher LFSBPpower (p=0.003) and lower LFSBPf (p=0.008) than YOUNG. LFSBPpower and LFSBPf did not differ between OLD and HT, whereas CAD had lower LFSBPf (p<0.001) and tended to have lower LFSBPpower (p=0.050) than OLD. No differences were found in LFSBPpower and LFSBPf between CAD and CAD+DM. We concluded that LF arterial pressure oscillations at resting condition are affected by age and cardiac disease but appear to be unaffected by diabetes in cardiac patients or by hypertension. Supported by Academy of Finland, TEKES Finland and CIHR.