title: Plasma copeptin levels and ambulatory blood pressure characteristics in healthy adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated whether copeptin - a well characterized vasopressin-related stress hormone - is associated with circadian ambulatory blood pressure (BP) variability and/or mean BP levels in young adults.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We studied a population-based sample of healthy adults aged 25-41 years. Individuals with diabetes, treated hypertension, and cardiovascular disease were excluded. Ambulatory 24-h BP monitoring was performed using validated devices. To evaluate the relationships of copeptin with mean ambulatory BP levels and BP variability during daytime and night-time, multivariable adjusted regression models were constructed. BP variability was defined as SD of all intraindividual BP values. Of the 2012 individuals included in this study, 53% were women and the median age was 37 years. Median plasma copeptin levels were 3.9 (interquartile range 2.7, 5.8) in men and 2.3 pmol/l (interquartile range 1.6, 3.6) in women (P < 0.0001). In multivariable linear regression models, log-transformed copeptin was significantly associated with systolic and diastolic night-time BP levels among men [β = 1.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.6, 3.1, P = 0.003; and β = 1.4, 95% CI 0.6, 2.3, P = 0.001, respectively], but not among women. In addition, copeptin was strongly associated with an increased systolic and diastolic daytime (β = 0.5, 95% CI 0.2, 0.7, P = 0.001; β = 0.5, 95% CI 0.3, 0.8, P < 0.0001, respectively) and night-time BP variability (β = 0.6, 95% CI 0.3, 0.9, P = 0.0002; β = 0.4, 95% CI 0.2, 0.7, P = 0.002, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this large population-based study of young and healthy adults, plasma levels of copeptin were significantly associated with an increased BP variability in both sexes and an elevated night-time BP among men.
authors.affiliation: aDepartment of Medicine, University Hospital Basel bCardiovascular Research Institute Basel, Switzerland cUniversity Heart Center Freiburg - Bad Krozingen, Germany dLabormedizinisches Zentrum Dr Risch, Schaan FL eDivision of Laboratory Medicine, Kantonsspital Graubünden, Chur, Switzerland fDivision of Clinical Biochemistry, Medical University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria gPrivate University, Triesen, Liechtenstein *Tobias Schoen and Eva-Maria Hohmann contributed equally to the writing of this article and are joint first authors.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schoen
authors.forename: Eva-Maria
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Hohmann
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Van Der Lely
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aeschbacher
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reusser
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Risch
authors.forename: Lorenz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Risch
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Conen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006020:Glycopeptides / Q000097:blood*; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D006020:Glycopeptides; C048197:copeptins