[Prevalence of arterial hypertension in branch retinal vein occlusion patients].
OBJECTIVE
To identify in patients with branch retinal vein occlusion using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and clinical blood pressure measures: hypertension prevalence, and nocturnal profile of blood pressure.


METHODS
Prospectively, 93 eyes of 83 patients with branch retinal vein occlusion were submitted to ophthalmological examination. Afterwards the patients were submitted to clinical evaluation and blood pressure monitoring. Non-dipper was defined as a fall in systolic blood pressure <or= 10%, and dipper when this value was higher.


RESULTS
Disease affected one eye in 73 (88%) patients. The temporal superior branch was the site of occlusion in 61 (65.6%) eyes, while in the others the infero-temporal branch was affected. Seventy six (92%) patients were diagnosed as hypertensive after clinical evaluation. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring identified 76 hipertensives, 5 normotensives, 1 white-coat hypertensive and one masked hypertensive subjects. The two latter were excluded from the analysis. Of the 81 analyzed patients, forty (49%) were dippers and 41 (51%) were non-dippers. Among the HT (n=76), 36 (47%) were dippers and 40 (53%) were non-dippers.


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of hypertension in our series was extremely high (92%) which suggests that physiopathology of the disease has a close relationship with changes promoted by hypertension. A little more than half of the hypertensives were non-dippers (n=40; 52,6%). These evidences suggest that a 24-hour sustained level of blood pressure may be an additional risk factor for branch retinal vein occlusion.
Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, USP, São Paulo, Brasil. alexandre_ros@hotmail.com
Alexandre Antonio Marques
AA
Rosa
Kátia Coelho
KC
Ortega
Décio
D
Mion
Yoshitaka
Y
Nakashima
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012016:Reference Values; D012170:Retinal Vein Occlusion / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D013997:Time Factors