Influence of diurnal blood pressure rhythm on aorticelastic properties in hypertensive subjects

Objective - The aim of this study was to evaluate whether there is a relationship between aortic elastic properties and diurnal blood pressure rhythm in hypertensive subjects. Methods and results - This study included 41 hypertensive patients who were taking medical treatment and had undergone ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). The patients were classified according to their night mean systolic blood pressure (Nm-SBP) fall. On the basis of Nm-SBP fall: 10 (24.4%) patients were dippers (with 10% but < 20% fall), 19 (46.3%) patients were nondippers (with 0% but < 10% fall) and 12 (29.3%) patients were reverse dippers (with < 0%). All subjects underwent echocardiographic examination. Internal aortic root diameters were measured at 3 cm above the aortic valve by the use of two-dimensional guided M-mode transthoracic echocardiography, and arterial blood pressure was measured simultaneously from the brachial artery by sphygmomanometry. Two indexes of the aortic elastic properties were measured which are aortic distensibility and aortic stiffness index. After subgroup analysis of the hypertensive patients, the highest aortic stiffness index value was found in reverse dipper patients (5.8 +/- 3.4) followed by nondipper patients (4.87 +/- 3.5) and the lowest in dipper patients (3.5 +/- 1.3) although clinical blood pressure values of hypertensive patients were similar. The aortic stiffness index value of reverse dippers and nondippers (5.6 +/- 3.4) was higher than in the (3.5 +/- 1.3) dippers group. Conclusion - In this study, we found a relation between diurnal blood pressure patterns and aortic elastic properties.