Circadian blood pressure variations in postmenopausal females with hypertension

Abstract

The abnormalities of blood pressure (BP) nocturnal decline have been found to be predictive for carotid plaque and lacunar infarction in patients with hypertension. In this study, BP dipping patterns in postmenopausal females with hypertension were investigated. The nocturnal decline of systolic BP (SBP) was evaluated using 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM). A total of 163 postmenopausal females were eventually included in our study. The prevalence of reverse-dipper BP pattern was 32.3% in females with menopause age in their 40s and 40% in their 50s. However, after multivariate logistic regression analysis, menopause age was shown to be an independent risk factor for BP reverse dipping (Odds ratio [OR] 1.148; 95%CI 1.020 - 1.292; P = 0.020). Moreover, menopause age was negatively correlated with the decline rate of nocturnal SBP (r = -0.159; P < 0.05) and diastolic BP (r = -0.161; P < 0.05). Our study suggested that the menopause age might serve as a risk factor for reverse-dipper BP pattern in postmenopausal females with hypertension.