Morning blood pressure surge and arterial stiffness in newly diagnosed hypertensive patients

Abstract Objective: We aimed to investigate the relationship between the morning blood pressure (BP) surge and arterial stiffness in patients with newly diagnosed hypertension. Subjects and methods: Three hundred and twenty four (mean age 51.7 ± 11.4 years) patients who had newly diagnosed hypertension with 24 h ambulatory BP monitoring were enrolled. Parameters of arterial stiffness, pulse wave velocity and augmentation index (Aix) were measured by applanation tonometry and aortic distensibility was calculated by echocardiography. Results: Compared with the other groups, pulse wave velocity, day–night systolic BP (SBP) difference (p < 0.001, for all) and hs-CRP (p = 0.005) were higher in morning BP surge high group. Aortic distensibility values were significantly lower in morning BP surge high group compared to the other groups (p < 0.05, for all). Morning BP surge was found to be independently associated with pulse wave velocity (β = 0.286, p < 0.001), aortic distensibility (β= −0.384, p < 0.001) and day–night SBP difference (β = 0.229, p < 0.001) in multivariate linear regression analysis. Conclusions: We found independent relationship between morning BP surge and arterial stiffness which is a surrogate endpoint for cardiovascular diseases. The inverse relationship between morning BP surge and aortic distensibility and direct relation found in our study is new to the literature.