title: Clinic blood pressure, ambulatory blood pressure and cardiac structural alterations in nonagenarians and in centenarians.
abstract: scant information is available on the alterations in cardiac structure and function characterizing very elderly people as well as on their relationships to clinic and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) values. In 106 subjects aged 95.3 ± 3.7 years (mean ± standard deviation, 89 nonagenarians and 17 centenarians) in good clinical conditions and living in the municipal house in Milan, we measured, along with standard clinical and laboratory variables, clinic BP, 24-h ambulatory BP and echocardiographic parameters. Forty-five of the recruited subjects were normotensive individuals, whereas 61 were treated hypertensive patients. Subjects with an age greater than 90 years showed clinic systolic (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) both within the normal range, with values that for clinic SBP were slightly lower than the corresponding 24-h SBP (120.8 ± 15.9 vs 128.0 ± 16.3 mmHg) and for DBP slightly higher (69.7 ± 8.8 vs 64.9 ± 8.0 mmHg). Daytime average mean BP was slightly lower than night-time average mean BP, indicating the attenuation of the BP reduction during night-time. Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was increased and significantly related to both 24-h and clinic BP values (r = 0.24, p < 0.04 and r = 0.20, p < 0.05). Thus in nonagenarians and centenarians, abnormalities in left ventricular pattern are of frequent detection and may be related both to the ageing process and to BP load.
authors.affiliation: Thoraco-Pulmonary an Cardiocirculatory Department, Ospedale Maggiore Milano, Università Statale, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carugo
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Solari
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pernigotti
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Caimi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Redaelli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maisaidi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brambilla
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grassi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mancia
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001794:Blood Pressure; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male