Blood pressure variability in Binswanger's disease and isolated lacunar infarction.
To determine whether blood pressure (BP) variability is increased in hypertensive patients with Binswanger's disease (BD), we studied two samples of consecutive treated hypertensive patients: (1) 11 with BD (mean age 71.3 +/- 5.2 years); (2) 16 with lacunar infarction (mean age 65.2 +/- 8.3 years) without cognitive impairment. An averaged baseline office BP was obtained for 3 consecutive weeks. Ambulatory BP monitoring was then carried out to obtain the averaged mean systolic (SBP) and diastolic BP, and BP variability was defined as the standard deviation of consecutive BP values.


RESULTS
Diurnal SBP variability was significantly increased in the BD group (p = 0.04). However, with the analysis of covariance for age and baseline office BP, the difference was no longer significant (p = 0.17 and p = 0.09, respectively). We conclude that increased BP variability in BD patients is probably due to older age and increased baseline office BP. Increased BP variability may be a risk factor for small-vessel disease, but not for cognitive impairment.
Martí-Fàbregas
J
J
Department of Neurology, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain. jmarti@hsp.santpau.es
Valencia
C
C
López-Contreras
J
J
Roca-Cusachs
A
A
Solé
M J
MJ
García-Sánchez
C
C
Martí-Vilalta
J L
JL
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D015992:Body Mass Index; D020520:Brain Infarction / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000150:complications; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric