Nocturnal blood pressure dipping and left ventricular hypertrophy among hypertensive outpatients in a Ghanaian hospital.

Objectives: To investigate the association between the extent of nocturnal systolic blood pressure decline and left ventricular hypertrophy in patients with primary hypertension who were receiving antihypertensive drug therapy.

Design: This was a cross-sectional hospital-based study from November 2020 to March 2021.

Setting: The study was conducted at the Polyclinic of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana.

Participants: Outpatients ≥18 years old with primary hypertension who were receiving antihypertensive drug therapy.

Interventions: Each participant underwent a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and a transthoracic echocardiogram.

Main outcome measures: Left ventricular hypertrophy and the extent of mean systolic blood pressure decline during sleep.

Results: 180 participants were recruited, comprising 110 (61.1%) females. The participants' mean (±SD) age was 57.6 ± 11.0 years. 80% had a non-dipping blood pressure pattern, and 43.9% had left ventricular hypertrophy. Uncontrolled office blood pressure was an independent predictor of left ventricular hypertrophy in these patients (AOR 2.010, 95% CI 1.048-3.855, p=0.036); however, a non-dipping nocturnal systolic blood pressure status was not (AOR 1.849, 95% CI 0.850-4.022, p=0.121). 61.1% had abnormal left ventricular geometry, with concentric hypertrophy being the predominant geometric pattern.

Conclusion: Left ventricular hypertrophy and non-dipping nocturnal blood pressure were common in these hypertensive Ghanaian patients on antihypertensive therapy. Left ventricular hypertrophy was associated with uncontrolled office blood pressure but not the extent of nocturnal systolic blood pressure declines during a single 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure recording.

Funding: None declared.