Between-visit reproducibility of inter-arm systolic blood pressure differences in treated hypertensive patients: the coconet study

Hypertens Res. 2017 May;40(5):483-486. doi: 10.1038/hr.2016.173. Epub 2016 Dec 22.

Abstract

Inter-arm systolic blood pressure (BP) differences (sIADs) have recently been recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular mortality. However, sIAD reproducibility remains unresolved from a controlled trial perspective. We evaluated the between-visit reproducibility of sIADs in hypertensive patients. We examined 1875 hypertensive participants aged 20 years and older (mean age: 62.3 years, 45.4% female) from nine primary clinics and 27 secondary and tertiary hospitals. The BPs in both arms were automatically and simultaneously measured in triplicate with a cuff-oscillometric BP device. BP measurements were obtained at baseline and at 3-month follow-up time points. Increased sIAD was defined as an absolute difference of ⩾10 mm Hg in the average systolic BPs between the left and right arms. The overall mean sIAD was 4.33±4.17 mm Hg. The prevalences of increased sIAD at baseline and at the 3-month measurements were 7.6% and 7.1%, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the between-visit sIADs was 0.304 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.262-0.344). The κ-value between the baseline and follow-up increased sIADs was 0.165 (95% CI 0.096-0.234). The percentage of patients who exhibited an increased sIAD at 3 months compared with the initially increased sIAD at baseline was 21.8%. The reproducibility of sIAD determination between baseline and the 3-month follow-up measurements lacked agreement in the hypertensive patients. Further studies should identify the relevant variables and characteristics of this poor reproducibility (CRIS number; KCT0001235).

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Blood Pressure Determination*
  • Blood Pressure*
  • Cohort Studies
  • Coronary Artery Disease / epidemiology
  • Diabetic Cardiomyopathies / epidemiology
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Hypertension / physiopathology*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Observer Variation
  • Prevalence
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Risk Factors
  • Sphygmomanometers
  • Systole
  • Young Adult