The relationship between electrocardiogram abnormalities and pulse pressure in hypertensive patients

Objective To investigate the relationship between electrocardiogram (ECG) abnorma lities , left ventricular hypertrophy(LVH) and pulse pressure (PP) in hypertension patients.Methods Data were from the south China cohort population of the PRC USA collaborative study on Cardiovascular and Cardiopulmonary Epidemiology. 1 143 hypertensive persons (626 males and 517 females) were selected in 1993～1994. All subjects had taken blood pressure measurement and ECG test, whose systolic blood pressure (SBP)≥140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP)≥90 mmHg or had taken medicines for hypertension in recent two weeks. Subjects were divided into two groups according to mean arterial pressure (MBP)(low MBP, (mean)109 mmHg; high MBP, ≥109 mmHg ), each group was further divided into four subgroups by pulse pressure (PP) quartiles level (PP≤48 mmHg\, 49～58 mmHg\, 59～68 mmHg\, 68 mmHg ).The percent rates of ECG major abnormalities, minor abnormalities and Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (LVH) in different MBP and PP groups were analyzed. The SAS software were use for the analyzing. Results The percentage of major or minor abnormalities ECG coding and LVH were increasing with PP raising ( P0 05 ). Logistic regression indicated that larger pulse pressure increase the risk of the abnormalities of ECG or LVH ( P0 001 ). No correlation of DBP or BMI with ECG abnormalities, and BMI with LVH were observed.Conclusion The pulse pressure has a positive correlation with abnormalities of ECG and LVH. In order to decrease the cardiac damages of hypertension, during lower blood pressure treatment, more attentions should be put on pulse pressure.