Ambulatory blood pressure, procolagen amino-terminal polypeptide (P-III-P) and hemorreologyc parameters

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the relationships between blood pressure profile, cardiac manifestations of high blood pressure and P-III-P as an index of fibrosis.

We studied hypertensives without other diseases using echocardiography (M and B mode, and Doppler), ABPM using a Spacelabs 9000, and plasma levels of P-III-P. The model ANOVA, one way, was used for the statistical analysis. The level of significance was accepted for p<0.01 (two-tailed probabilities).

The 73 hypertensives studied were divided in two subgroups: dippers (49 subjects) and non-dippers (21 subjects). The non-dipper group had an higher degree of left ventricular hypertrophy obtained by the higher measurement of the inter-ventricular septum thickness (p<0.01), posterior wall thickness (p<0.01), and an higher index of left ventricular mass (p<0.01) then the dippers, they also had higher levels of fibrinogen (p<0,01) and higher plasma levels of P-III-P then dippers (p<0.01). It was found a correlation between the fibrinogen, P-III-P levels and index of left ventricular mass (p<0,01).

In conclusion, P-III-P might be a marker of tissue lesion, and fibrinogen might be a plasma marker of gravity of hypertension. This gravity can be express by the degree of left ventricular hypertrophy.