Nighttime blood pressure fall in renal disease patients

Objective. There are controversial reports in the prevalence of abnormal nighttime blood pressure fall in renal patients. It has been evaluated nocturnal BP in renal patients using 24 h blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) in comparison with nontreated control subjects either normotensives or hypertensives. Design and Methods. It has been reviewed 137 ABPM studies performed in renal patients (47.8 ± 15.4 years, 76 men and 61 women). The control group includes 119 subjects without kidney disease, 65 were normotensives, and 49 were hypertensives, aged 46.8 ± 12.1 years, 59 men and 60 women. The ambulatory BP was measured noninvasively for 24 h by the SpaceLabs 90207 device programmed to measure BP every 15 min during daytime and every 20 min during nighttime. The definition of daytime and nighttime was made on the basis of wakefulness and sleep or bed rest periods, obtained from a diary kept by each subject. Results. SBP, but not DBP, was higher (133.9/81.7) in renal disease patients when compared to nonrenal s...