Methodological approaches to estimation of a morning urge of arterial pressure in essential hypertensives

Aim. To estimate the time intervals of a morning arterial pressure urge (MAPU) and MAPU characteristics in patients with essential hypertension (EH).
Material and methods. The study enrolled 70 patients (50 male and 20 female) with EH of the first (n = 41) and second (n = 20) degrees aged 34-65 years (mean age 50.4 ±0.9 years). The control group consisted of 9 healthy men. Morning dynamics of arterial pressure (AP) and heart rate (HR) was studied basing on the data of 24-h AP monitoring (Spacelabs-90207, USA). Results. Dynamics of AP from nocturnal to diurnal patterns in both hypertensive and normotensive subjects falls into 3 phases: a premorning urge (from 4-5 a.m. to waking up) with a characteristic slow rise in AP and HR; a morning urge (from waking up for 4-5 hours) with a characteristic forced AP and HR rise); a diurnal urge (from 11 a.m. to 13-14 p.m.) with characteristic slowing down of AP and HR rise. Patients with EH of the first and second degree vs normotensive subjects had unfavourable changes in morning dynamics of AP and HR: a significant progressive growth of maximal systolic and diastolic pressure proportional to mean circadian AP levels; a rise of morning hours index of AP which characterizes amplitude-speed features of AP and HR.
Conclusion. To characterize MAPU most completely it is recommended to estimate the following parameters: wave index (to assess AP conversion from one level to another), mean rate of AP change per hour (to prevent influence of random factors on the rate of MAPU); relative maximal values of AP (to estimate maximal AP values in morning hours and nocturnal mean AP).

essential hypertension, arterial pressure, 24-h monitoring, a morning urge