PS 02-70 ASSOCIATION BETWEEN AMBULATORY BLOOD PRESSURE VARIABILITY AND ARTERIAL STIFFNESS IN HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS

Abstract

Objective: The cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) is a recently developed index used to assess arterial stiffness that is independent of blood pressure components. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association between ambulatory blood pressure (BP) variability and arterial stiffness. Design and Method: Study subjects were 114 subjects with hypertension (75 were female, aged 66.1 ± 11.1 years) who underwent ambulatory BP monitoring and cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) measurement. The CAVI was measured using the VaSera VS-1000 vascular screening system employing oscillometric technology (Fukuda Denshi Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). We compared the CAVI between the highest (high variability) and lowest (low variability) tertiles of the standard deviation (SD) of systolic BP. Results: Lowest tertile of SD was less than 17.62 mmHg and highest tertile of SD was more than 21.63 mmHg. Mean systolic and diastolic BP were higher in high variability group (systolic BP 139.7 ± 20.5 versus 126.2 ± 15.9 mmHg, p = 0.002; diastolic BP 79.8 ± 9.0 versus 75.1 ± 8.5 mmHg, p = 0.021). CAVI was not significant different between both groups (high variability group versus low variability group 8.97 ± 2.43 versus 8.70 ± 2.39, p = 0.629). Conclusions: These results indicate that ambulatory BP variability is not associated with arterial stiffness.