Background: A remarkable rise in blood pressure(BP) in the early morning has been shown to be associated with the occurrence of cardiovascular events, and it is suggested that the early morning rise in pressure is mainly related to ambulation rather than awakening itself. But it is reported that in some patients blood pressure rises steeply even before awakening, We investigated ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) data in 13 patients with acute cerebral infarction to evaluate the pattern of early morning BP rise.
Methods: ABPM was performed to 13 patients with cerebral infarction within 7 days after admission. All the patients were informed to be supine position for 30 minutes after awakening, i.e. eye opening and to start physical activity. Baseline BP during sleep, BP at awakening and BP after ambulation were compared to essential hypertension patients to determine the effect of cerebral infarction.
Results: Patients with stroke bad significantly higher systolic BP than control subjects (mean, 149.1±17.0 mmHg and 126.8±11.0 mmHg, respectively). There is a significant change between BP increase at awakening (15.4 mmHg) and that after ambulation (24.8 mmHg) in control patients (p=0.02). But there is little difference between BP increase at awakening and BP after ambulation in acute cerebral infarction patients (22.2±16.0 mmHg and 30.5±15.0 mmHg, p=0.224).
|