title: Different prognostic impact of 24-hour mean blood pressure and pulse pressure on stroke and coronary artery disease in essential hypertension.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We tested the hypothesis that the steady and pulsatile components of blood pressure (BP) exert a different influence on coronary artery disease and stroke in subjects with hypertension.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We analyzed data on 2311 subjects with essential hypertension. All subjects (mean age 51 years, 47% women) underwent off-therapy 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring. Over a follow-up period of up to 14 years (mean 4.7 years), there were 132 major cardiac events (1.20 per 100 person-years) and 105 cerebrovascular events (0.90 per 100 person-years). After adjustment for age, sex, diabetes, serum cholesterol, and cigarette smoking (all P<0.01), for each 10 mm Hg increase in 24-hour pulse pressure (PP), there was an independent 35% increase in the risk of cardiac events (95% CI 17% to 55%). Twenty-four-hour mean BP was not a significant predictor of cardiac events after controlling for PP. After adjustment for age, sex, and diabetes (all P<0.05), for every 10 mm Hg increase in 24-hour mean BP, the risk of cerebrovascular events increased by 42% (95% CI 19% to 69%), and 24-hour PP did not yield significance after controlling for 24-hour mean BP. Twenty-four-hour PP was also an independent predictor of fatal cardiac events, and 24-hour mean BP was an independent predictor of fatal cerebrovascular events.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In subjects with predominantly systolic and diastolic hypertension, ambulatory mean BP and PP exert a different predictive effect on the cardiac and cerebrovascular complications. Although PP is the dominant predictor of cardiac events, mean BP is the major independent predictor of cerebrovascular events.
authors.affiliation: Cardiologia e Fisiopatologia Cardiovascolare, Medicina Interna, Angiologia e Malattie da Arteriosclerosi, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy. verdec@tin.it
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verdecchia
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schillaci
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reboldi
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Franklin
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Porcellati
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D011674:Pulse; D012307:Risk Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*