[Correlation between blood pressure variability and left ventricular hypertrophy in patients with primary hypertension].
To study the correlation between blood pressure variability (BPV) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in patients with primary hypertension. We monitored the 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure and determined the left ventricular mass index (LVMI) by two dimensional echocardiography in 87 patients with primary hypertension (PH) and 26 normal controls. The LVMI in the PH patients was significantly higher than that in the controls. It was positively correlated to the average level of the 24-hour systolic blood pressure (24 h-SBP), nighttime systolic blood pressure (n-SBP), and nighttime diastolic blood pressure (n-DBP) (r = 0.183, P < 0.05; r = 0.275, P < 0.01; r = 0.243, P < 0.05, respectively). It was also negatively correlated to the 24-hour systolic blood pressure variability (24 h-SBPV) and the daytime systolic blood pressure variability (d-SBPV) (r = -0.253, P < 0.01; r = -0.186, P < 0.05, respectively). The 24 h-SBPV in the patients with LVH was significantly lower than that of those without LVH, but there was no significant difference in d-SBPV and n-SBPV between the PH patients with LVH and those without LVH. The 24 h-SBPV is valuable in predicting LVH in hypertension.