Blood pressure variability in Parkinson's Disease patients – Case control study

•The cardiovascular risk of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients is still uncertain.•PD patients have a higher daytime blood pressure variability (BPV).•Patients with higher systolic BPV presented more asymptomatic organ damage. The cardiovascular risk of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients is uncertain. Blood pressure variability (BPV) has been associated with cardiovascular and mortality outcomes. We aimed to evaluate blood pressure variability, as a marker of cardiovascular risk, in patients with PD and matched community controls. Cross-sectional case-control study was performed. All subjects included in the analysis were clinically evaluated and performed a 24 h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. BPV was assessed using standard deviations (SDs) of the systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) for each period – 24 h, daytime, and night-time. The study included 204 participants, 102 in each group. Mean age 66 years old and 59% man. Most PD patients presented mild symptoms (mean Hoehn&Yahr 2.04). Daytime BPV was significantly higher in PD patients (SD SBP 14.1 mmHg vs 12.96 mmHg and SD DBP 9.39 mmHg vs 8.29 mmHg), but 24 h and night-time BPV were non-significantly increased. PD patients present non-significant higher night-time SBP (114 mmHg vs 110 mmHg) as well as higher frequency of non-dippers or reverse dippers BP profiles (51% vs 36%). Our exploratory study suggests that PD patients may present a higher blood pressure variability, which may translate in an increased cardiovascular risk. However, further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis and causality.