Why the study?
Does the second derivative of the finger arterial pressure waveform differ between subjects with essential hypertension and healthy controls?
Does the second derivative of the finger arterial pressure waveform differ between subjects with essential hypertension and healthy controls?
The B/A and C/A indices of the second derivative of the finger arterial pressure waveform provide independent discriminative power between hypertensive and healthy subjects, potentially reflecting structural arterial wall alterations.
The study investigated second derivative of the finger arterial pressure waveform (SDFAP) in 120 healthy middle-aged subjects and in 24 subjects with essential hypertension. SDFAP consists of 5 sequential waves 'a'-'e'. Their normalized magnitudes (B/A, C/A, D/A, and E/A) were calculated. In multivariate regression analysis, B/A and C/A correlated only with age. D/A independently correlated with age, heart period, mean blood pressure (MBP), body height, and gender. E/A independently correlated with age and MBP. D/A and E/A were higher (0.42+/-0.16 vs. 0.33+/-0.14, p = 0.05 and 0.63+/-0.15 vs. 0.45+/-0.14, p < 0.001), while B/A and C/A were lower (1.04+/-0.16 vs. 1.20+/-0.17, p = 0.002 and 0.09+/-0.15 vs. 0.26+/-0.20, p = 0.001) in hypertensives compared to sex- and age-matched controls. After the adjustment for MBP, heart period, and body mass index (ANCOVA), independent discriminative power was preserved only for indices B/A and C/A (p = 0.001 and 0.021, respectively). Therefore, B/A and C/A provide additional information about simple clinical characteristics and might reflect the structural alteration of the arterial wall in hypertensive subjects.
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Šimek et al. (2005) studied this question.
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