Relationship between left atrial functions and ambulatory blood pressure variability in patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction

Aim    The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between left atrial (LA) abnormalities and ambulatory blood pressure variability (BPV) in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) patients.
Material and methods    In this single-center, prospective study, we included 187 patients with HFpEF. Eighteen patients with poor image quality were excluded from the study. BPV was evaluated using 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring. The standard deviation of systolic BP (SBP-SD) was calculated to assess BPV. The patients were classified into two groups according to median SBP-SD (10.5 mm Hg).
Results    Overall, 169 HFpEF patients (69.2% women, mean age 69.2±11 yrs) were evaluated. There were 98 patients (57.9%) with a SBP-SD greater than 10.5 mm Hg. Patients with higher SPB-SD had significantly higher left atrial stiffness (LASt) and lower LA reservoir strain (LASr) than those with low SPB-SD. LASt was correlated with 24 hr SBP-SD in both sinus rhythm (r= 0.35, p= 0.015) and atrial fibrillation patients (r= 0.32, p= 0.005). There were significant correlations between night-time SBP-SD and LASr (r=-0.23, p=0.045) in HFpEF with sinus rhythm. For all HFpEF patients, multiple regression analyses showed that 24-hr SBP-SD was correlated with LASt (coeff.=0.40, 95%CI= 0.52–5.25, P= 0.017).
Conclusions    High BPV is associated with impaired LA function, especially for LASt and LASr. This study may provide insight for larger multicenter studies to evaluate the effects on outcomes in HFpEF.

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