Blood Pressure Prompts Vascular And Cardiac Changes

Blood pressure -and particularly pulse pressure – is linked with both vascular and cardiac alterations, a study has found.

This study looked at the role of blood pressure on carotid remodeling in essential hypertension, using both no indexed and indexed parameters. It also compared carotid parameters with cardiac mass and aortic stiffness.

Participants in the study were 40 men with untreated hypertension. All of the subjects had echocardiography and carotid ultrasonography as well as measurement of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity.

Cross-sectional area index was found to be associated essentially with the 24-hour systolic blood pressure. However, intima-media thickness was found to be related to the 24-hour pulse pressure.

At the same time, both carotid intima-media thickness and cross-section area indexes were found to be less related to blood pressure variables than were non-indexed parameters.

Further analysis also showed there is an independent link between 24-hour pulse pressure and both left ventricular mass index and pulse wave velocity.

These authors conclude that there is an association between blood pressure, particularly pulse pressure, and vascular and cardiac alterations.

They point out as well that the indexation by the body surface area does not provide any additional information with respect to the link between carotid and blood pressure parameters.