Relationship between pulse pressure and electrocardiogram abnormality in essential hypertensive elderly patients.

Objective To investigate the relationship between pulse pressure (PP) and electrocardiographical abnomality in essential hypertensive elderly patients. Methods A sampling survey on blood pressure and electrocardiographic examination aged over 60 years was performed,and among them 750 essential hypertensive patients were analyzed. They were first divided into two groups according to mean blood pressure(MBP) 113mmHg or ≥113mmHg,then were divided into three pulse pressure(pp) subgroups, 65mmHg,65～85mmHg and 85mmHg. Results (1)The prevalence of myocardial hypertrophy, electrocardiographical abnomality, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and mean blood pressure (MBP) increased with increasing PP, but DBP decreased (P0.01 ). (2) The levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) had no correlation with PP (P0.05). (3) In patients with the same PP, no difference in the prevaleence of myocardial hypertrophy and electrocardiographical abnomality was found between MBP113mmHg and MBP ≥113mmHg, 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 then that of SBP and DBP in predicting cardiac events.