Morning blood pressure surge is associated with serum gamma-glutamyltransferase activity in essential hypertensive patients

Twenty-Four-Hour Ambulatory Pulse Wave Analysis in Hypertension Management: Current Evidence and Perspectives

The predictive value of vascular biomarkers such as pulse wave velocity (PWV), central arterial pressure (CAP), and augmentation index (AIx), obtained through pulse wave analysis (PWA) in resting conditions, has been documented in a variety of patient groups and populations. This allowed to make appropriate recommendations in clinical practice guidelines of several scientific societies. Due to advances in technologies, largely operator-independent methods are currently available for estimating vascular biomarkers also in ambulatory conditions, over the 24 h. According to the acceptable accuracy and reproducibility of 24-h ambulatory PWA, it appears to be a promising tool for evaluating vascular biomarkers in daily life conditions. This approach may provide an opportunity to further improve the early cardiovascular screening in subjects at risk. However, concerning the clinical use of PWA over the 24 h in ambulatory conditions at the moment, there is no sufficient evidence to support its routine clinical use. In particular, long-term outcome studies are needed to show the predictive value of 24-h PWV, CAP, and AIx values, provided by these devices, over and beyond peripheral blood pressure, and to answer the many technical and clinical questions still open. To this regard, the VASOTENS Registry, an international observational prospective study recently started, will help providing answers on a large sample of hypertensive patients recruited worldwide.

Beyond Body Mass Index: Advantages of Abdominal Measurements for Recognizing Cardiometabolic Disorders

BACKGROUND

The clinical recognition of cardiometabolic disorders might be enhanced by anthropometry based on the sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD; also called "abdominal height") or waist circumference rather than on weight. Direct comparisons of body mass index (BMI, weight/height(2)) with SAD/height ratio (SADHtR) or waist circumference/height ratio (WHtR) have not previously been tested in nationally representative populations.

METHODS

Nonpregnant adults without diagnosed diabetes (ages 20-64 years; n = 3071) provided conventional anthropometry and supine SAD (by sliding-beam caliper) in the 2011-2012 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Population-weighted, logistic models estimated how strongly each anthropometric indicator was associated with 5 cardiometabolic disorders: Dysglycemia (glycated hemoglobin ≥5.7%), HyperNonHDLc (non-high-density-lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol ≥4.14 mmol/L, or taking anticholesteremic medications), Hypertension (systolic blood pressure ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mm Hg, or taking antihypertensive medications), HyperALT (alanine transaminase ≥p75 [75th percentile, sex-specific]), and HyperGGT (gamma-glutamyltransferase ≥p75 [sex-specific]).

RESULTS

After scaling each indicator, adjusted odds ratios (aORs) tended to be highest for SADHtR and lowest for BMI when identifying each disorder except dysglycemia. When SADHtR entered models simultaneously with BMI, the aORs for BMI no longer directly identified any condition, whereas SADHtR identified persons with HyperNonHDLc by aOR 2.78 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.71-4.51), Hypertension by aOR 2.51 (95% CI, 1.22-5.15), HyperALT by aOR 2.89 (95% CI, 1.56-5.37), and HyperGGT by aOR 5.43 (95% CI, 3.01-9.79). WHtR competed successfully against BMI with regard to Dysglycemia, HyperNonHDLc, and HyperGGT. c-Statistics of SADHtR and WHtR were higher than those of BMI (P <.001) for identifying HyperNonHDLc and HyperGGT.

CONCLUSIONS

Among nonelderly adults, SADHtR or WHtR recognized cardiometabolic disorders better than did the BMI.