Morning blood pressure surge is associated with death in hypertensive patients.

Background: Morning blood pressure surge (MS), defined as the difference between the mean blood pressure (BP) 2 h after waking up and the mean of the three lowest BP values during sleep, has been correlated with increased cardiovascular risk. We sought to evaluate its association with cardiovascular events and death.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from 632 hypertensive patients [median age 58 years (50-67 years), 37% men] who underwent ambulatory BP monitoring between January 2005 and December 2006.