Evaluation of central: peripheral blood pressure ratio in patients undergoing coronary angiography: A pilot study from North India

Aim: The study aimed to propose the ratio of central blood pressure:peripheral blood pressure as a novel index to predict cardiovascular risk. We additionally attempted to determine the impact of beta-blocker therapy on this ratio.Materials and Methods: This was a prospective, single-centre study conducted between August 2019__ and December 2019. A total of 102 patients undergoing cath-lab procedures such as coronary angiography (CAG), percutaneous coronary intervention were studied. Central blood pressure was invasively measured from the radial artery. Peripheral blood pressure was also measured from the right arm radial artery using invasive pressure transducer. Patients were divided into two groups as follows: (i) beta-blocker group to receive beta-blocker treatment (n = 82) and (ii) nonbeta-blocker group that did not receive beta-blocker treatment (n = 20).Results: The mean age of the study participants was 55.7 ± 10.0 years. Males constituted 80 (78.4%) patients of the study population. The central:peripheral blood pressure ratios for systolic and diastolic blood pressure were 0.88 ± 0.1 and 0.93 ± 0.2 (P = 0.004), respectively. Systolic blood pressure ratios for the beta-blocker and nonbeta-blocker groups were 0.89 ± 0.1 and 0.93 ± 0.2 (P = 0.016), respectively. Similarly, diastolic blood pressure ratios for the beta-blocker and nonbeta-blocker groups were 0.84 ± 0.1 and 0.95 ± 0.1 (P = 0.770), respectively.Conclusions: This novel ratio of central:peripheral blood pressure may serve as a precursor of cardiovascular risk. This ratio may give a clue to relationship between central and peripheral blood pressure.