Twenty-four hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in young and elderly hypertensive subjects.

The aim of our study was to compare blood pressure (BP) measured by 24-h ambulatory monitoring in young and elderly hypertensives and to find a dependency between left ventricular mass (LVM) and different pressure ratios. We also estimated the calcium ionized concentration and serum lipids in all subjects. Two hypertensive groups divided accordingly by age were studied. The duration of hypertension was similar in both groups. The Oxford Medilog ABP was used for the arterial BP recordings. Mean arterial BP, BP loads and night/day mean arterial pressure ratio were evaluated. In both groups left ventricular mass index (LVMI) were calculated. The serum calcium ionized concentration (Ca++) was estimated and serum lipids were determined. We found 10 non-dippers in the young group and seven non-dippers in the elderly hypertensives. LVM and LVMI were comparable in both groups. We showed the correlation of the nocturnal mean arterial pressure with LVM in elderly hypertensives and the dependency of nocturnal BP load with LVM in this group. Serum calcium ionized concentration was significantly decreased in the elderly patients, and LDL-cholesterol was significantly higher in this group. We found a negative correlation between serum calcium and triglycerides in young and elderly hypertensives. We found more non-dippers in the young hypertensives and a positive correlation between LVM and nocturnal mean arterial pressure and nocturnal BP load in elderly subjects. These results suggest the cardiovascular prognosis is not good in both groups. The prognosis in elderly hypertensives was also worsened by the low serum calcium ionized and high LDL-cholesterol concentrations.