Circadian blood pressure rhythm and intimal-medial thickness changes in non-dipper normotensive patients

Abstract

We investigated 25 non-dipper normotensive vs 25 dipper normotensive patients. The aim of our study was to evaluate carotid intimal-medial thickness (IMT) in the two groups. At the admission patients underwent anamnesis and general examination, blood sampling for lipid profile measurement, glycemia, homocysteine, ambulatory blood pressure measurement to assess the circadian blood pressure profile, and Doppler ultrasound to measure carotid IMT. Our results showed that IMT is significantly higher in the non-dipper group (P<0.006) vs dippers. Non-dipper status has been recognized in several studies as a condition with increased risk for target organ damage in hypertensive and normotensive subjects. However, to our knowledge, a possible relationship between IMT and normotensive non-dipper patients has not yet been clearly investigated. Our study instead has clearly demonstrated a significant relationship between IMT and the non-dipper status.

Keywords

• Normotensives
• non-dipper
• target organ damage
• carotid intimal-medial thickness.