title: Prognostic value of subdivisions of nighttime blood pressure fall in hypertensives followed up for 8.2 years. Does nondipping classification need to be redefined?
abstract: To evaluate the long-term prognostic significance of different ranges of the percentage fall in nighttime blood pressure (BP) of the nondipping pattern, 1200 hypertensive patients (645 women, age 51+/-12 years) underwent ambulatory BP monitoring under stabilized therapy. The occurrence of cardiovascular (CV) events was followed for 9833 patient-years and analyzed by the Cox hazard model. There were 152 CV fatal/nonfatal events (79 strokes, 51 coronary events, 22 others) during the 15.2 years of follow-up. According to nighttime BP fall (%) the authors noted: <0% (reverse-dippers [RD], n=83); 0%-4.9% (nondippers 1 [ND1], n=207); 5%-9.9% (nondippers 2 [ND2], n=311), 10%-19.9% (dippers [D], n=523); and > or =20% (extreme dippers [ED], n=76). After adjustment for confounding variables, hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) of CV event and stroke in RD vs D were 2.29 (1.31-3.99) and 2.46 (1.11-5.49); of ND1 vs D were 1.42 (1.12-1.79) and 1.62 (1.17-2.23); and of ND1 vs ND2 were 2.24 (1.33-3.75) and 2.30 (1.15-4.58). No differences were found in RD vs ND1 and ND2 vs D. Nondippers have a higher CV risk than dippers but only for a nighttime BP fall <5% suggesting that the limits for nondipping should be redefined for a stratification of CV risk.
authors.affiliation: Escola Superior de Saúde da Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: José Mesquita
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bastos
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bertoquini
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Polónia
mesh_terms: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011174:Portugal; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents