24-h Ambulatory Blood Pressure Variability Research Articles

Relationship between primary open angle glaucoma and blood pressure

Background: Glaucoma is commonly defined as high intra ocular pressure (≥21 mmHg) with optic neuropathy characterised by progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells which is associated with characteristic structural damage to the optic nerve and visual field loss. There are several studies investigating relation between primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and both systemic hypertension and especially night hypotension. Our aim was to compare 24-h ambulatory blood pressure variability of patients with glaucoma followed-up in the eye outpatient clinic with that of patients free of glaucoma.Methods: A total of 75 patients were included in the study, 35 in the patient group and 40 in the control group. Both groups were compared for daytime, night-time, and whole day mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) readings in the ambulatory blood pressure testing.Results: Mean daytime systolic BP of the glaucoma patients was 119.5 ± 11.6 mmHg, and 128.3 ± 15.5 mmHg for control group (p = 0.008). The night-time systolic blood pressure, whole day systolic BP, and mean diastolic BP were significantly lower in patients with glaucoma (p = 0.001, p = 0.001, p = 0.028, respectively). In multiple regression analysis, we identified daytime systolic BP, night-time systolic BP, and whole day systolic BP were independent risk factors for developing glaucoma.Conclusion: If the progression of the disease is noticeable in patients with glaucoma at follow-up, night-time hypotension should be ruled out with ambulatory blood pressure and if this is observed medical treatments used by the patients should be reviewed and necessary measures should be taken.

Age and sex-specific relationships between blood pressure variability and carotid intima-media thickness.

This study evaluated the association between carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and 24h ambulatory blood pressure variability (BPV) in 150 subjects. The subjects were divided into different age groups and gender groups. We found that for the subjects aged less than 45years, 24h and daytime diastolic BPV were associated with the increased IMT (r=0.525, P=0.018; r=0.507, P=0.022). For the middle aged people (46-55years), daytime (r=0.377, P=0.014) and 24h systolic BPV (r=0.366, P=0.017) were more related to the increases in IMT than 24h diastolic BPV (r=0.320, P=0.039). However, no association between carotid IMT and BPV was found in the elderly (>55years). In addition, the relationships between carotid IMT and BPV were more obvious in males than females. 24h systolic BPV (P=0.008) is the independent factor to evaluate the increased carotid IMT for males, but not for females. The findings in our study indicated that age and sex had influences on progression of carotid IMT. We conclude that the relationship between carotid IMT and ambulatory BPV can be modified by age and sex, thus, the regression model using BPV to evaluate the arteriosclerotic progression should take age and sex into account.