Arterial stiffness in postmenopausal women with arterial hypertension

Abstract

Background. It was established that the prevalence of reduced bone mineral density is significantly higher among patients with arterial hypertension compared to healthy subjects. The purpose of the research was to study arterial stiffness and central aortic pressure in women with arterial hypertension combined with osteoporosis. Materials and methods. 88 postmenopausal women with arterial hypertension (average age 62.7 ± 3.8 years) were included in the study, of which 35 women with osteoporosis (OP) according to dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) data (group 1) and 33 without it (group 2). The control group consisted of 20 practically healthy women without arterial hypertension and OP. Before the start of the study, the patients did not regularly receive antihypertensive drugs. In addition to conventional studies, daily blood pressure monitoring, applanation tonometry, and DXA were performed. Statistical processing was performed using the Statistica 10.0 software package using standard variational statistics algorithms. Results. It was found that in group 1, the levels of office systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were by 3.7 and 4.9 % (p < 0.05) hi­gher than in group 2. According to daily blood pressure monito­ring, a more pronounced increase in average daily SBP and DBP by 4.1 and 6.6 % (p < 0.05) was observed in group 1 compared to group 2. It was found that in group 1, compared to the control group and group 2, an increase in pulse wave velocity was detected by 37.2 and 26.4 %, respectively. Conclusions. In women with postmenopau­sal osteoporosis in combination with arterial hypertension according to data of office measurement, daily monitoring blood pressure and data of applanation tonometry, blood pressure levels and parameters of arterial stiffness were significantly higher than in patients with arterial hypertension without osteoporosis.