Morning Blood Pressure Surge as a Predictor of Outcome in Patients with Essential Hypertension

To determine the usefulness of monitoring morning blood pressure surge (MBPS) to predict cardiovascular events in patients with essential hypertension. A total of 81 patients (43 males and 38 females) with a mean age of 55.9 ± 9.8 years with essential hypertension were included in the study. Twenty-four hour ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring was carried out to record MBPS. All patients were followed up for 36 months for cardiovascular events. Mean MBPS was 26.23 ± 10.17 mmHg. Nineteen patients (23%) who experienced a cardiovascular event during the follow-up period had higher MBPS than patients who did not experience a cardiovascular event ( < 0.0001). MBPS was positively correlated with interventricular septum thickness ( = +0.38 and = 0.000), left atrial size ( = +0.39 and = 0.000), 24-h mean systolic BP ( = +0.36 and = 0.001) and total cholesterol level ( = +0.23 and = 0.003). MBPS was negatively correlated with high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol ( = -0.37 and = 0.001). MBPS can be used as a biomarker for a cardiovascular disease event in hypertensive patients.