Relations between white coat effect of blood pressure and arterial stiffness

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (b-a PWV) and white coat effect (WCE), that is the difference between the elevated office blood pressure (BP) and the lower mean daytime pressure of ambulatory BP, in a mixed population of normotention, untreated sustained hypertension, sustained controlled hypertension, sustained uncontrolled hypertension, white coat hypertension, white coat uncontrolled hypertension. A total of 444 patients with WCE for systolic BP (54.1% female, age 61.86 ± 13.3 years) were enrolled in the study. Patients were separated into low WCE (<9.5 mm Hg) and high WCE (≥9.5 mm Hg) according to the median of WCE. The subjects with a high WCE showed a greater degree of arterial stiffness than those with a low WCE for systolic BP values (P.05 for non-linearity). The significant association between the high WCE and the b-a PWV was confirmed by the results of multiple regression analysis after adjusting for confounding factors (β =.78, 95% Cl.25-1.31, P =. 004). Similar results were observed in subgroups. In conclusion, WCE is significantly associated with arterial stiffness. More research is needed to determine the WCE and target organ damage.