Relationship between pulse pressure and electrocardiogram abnormality in essential hypertensive patients

Objective To investigate the relationships between pulse pressure (PP), myocardial hypertrophy and electrocardiographical abnormality (ECG). Methods A sampling survey on blood pressure and electrocardiographic examination among 1 243 subjects aged over 60 years was performed, and among them 739 essential hypertensive patients were analyzed. They were first divided into two groups according to mean blood pressure (MBP)113 mm Hg or ≥113 mm Hg (1 mm Hg=0.133 kPa), then were divided into four pulse pressure (PP) subgroups (≤60,61 80,81 100 and 100 mm Hg). Results (1) The prevalence of myocardial hypertrophy, ECG abnormality, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and mean blood pressure (MBP) increased with increasing PP, but DBP decreased ( P 0.01). (2) The levels of blood glucose, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HCL C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL C) and body mass index (BMI) had no correlation with PP ( P 0.05). (3) In patients with the same PP, no difference in the prevalence of myocardial hypertrophy and ECG abnormality was found between MBP113 mm Hg and MBP≥ 113 mm Hg, but the SBP and DBP were significantly higher in the latter ( P 0.01). Conclusion High PP in essential hypertensive patients is an independent risk factor in cardiac events. The significance of PP is higher than that of SBP and DBP in predicting cardiac events.