Obesity Increases Blood Pressure Variability during the Night

Obesity Increases Blood Pressure Variability during the Night

Por: Hong Ju An, MD, Wan Kim, MD, Chung Kang, MD, Dong In Nam, MD, Il Hyung Jung, MD, Hoon Kang, MD, Sang Sun Lee, MD, Ho Yeong Song, MD, Sang Cheol Cho, MD, Won Yu Kang, MD, Sun Ho Hwang, MD, Other Korean Ambulatory Blood Pressure Registry Investigators.  Journal of The Korean Society of Hypertension 2014 Mar;20(1):1-7.

Previous studies have reported that obesity increases heart rate variability. Body mass index (BMI) has been reported to affect blood pressure variability (BPV) over 24 hours. However, the diurnal variation in the effect of BMI on BPV has not been evaluated. This study aimed to clarify the diurnal variation in the effect of BMI on BPV.   A total of 2,044 patients were consecutively enrolled in this study, and the data were analyzed retrospectively. All patients underwent 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. We divided patients into two groups according to BMI (non-obese group: n = 1,145, BMI < 25; obese group: n = 899, BMI = 25). We compared BPV during daytime and nighttime between the non-obese and obese groups. We also evaluated the impact of BMI on BPV by multivariate regression analysis.