Relationship Of Ambulatory Pulse Pressure And Carotid Atherosclerosis In Patients With Essential Hypertension

Recent years, the results of epidemiologic survey and clinic follow-up about pulse pressure revealed that the increased pulse pressure was a risk factor for artery atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Following the attaching importance to systolic pressure in hypertension treatment and progress of research on main artery flexibility function, pulse pressure was turning into a hot point in cardiovascular study fields.To investigate the relationship between 24h ambulatory pulse pressure (PP) and carotid atherosclerosis in hypertensive patients, sixty essential hypertensive patients were divided into 2 groups: hypertension stage 1 group and hypertension stage 2 group. Sixteen healthy subjects were selected as normal control group. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was used to examine the ambulatory pulse pressure. Carotid intima-media thickness ( IMT), and carotid plaque (IMT≧ 1.3mm was defined as atherosclerosis)were assessed by B-mode ultrasound. Results showed that 24h average PP, daytime average PP, night - time average PP were significantly increased in hypertension group compared with normal control group, and were higher in hypertension stage1 group than those in hypertension stage 2 group. IMT and carotid plaque were thicker in hypertension group than those in normal control group. There was an increasing trend for IMT with the severity of plaque. Ambulatory PP (especially night - time average PP) was positively related to IMT and carotid plaque. The level of IMT was correlated positively with carotid plaque. The study indicated that ambulatory PP was an important risk factor for assessing carotid artery atherosclerosis.