Mortality in hypertensive patients with coronary heart disease depends on chronopharmacotherapy and dipping status.

BACKGROUND The goal of our study was to assess the influence of hypertension chronopharmacotherapy on diurnal blood pressure (BP) profile and mortality. METHODS Subjects with established coronary heart disease (CHD) (n = 1345, mean age 63.2 ± 9.2 years) were included. RESULTS Non-dipping status was related to a lack of nighttime hypertensive drug administration (OR 3.87, 95% CI 3.00-4.98). In a Cox proportional hazards regression model, non-dipping status (HR 1.17, 95% CI 1.02-1.47) and non-nighttime antihypertensive drug administration (HR 1.13, 95% CI 1.01-1.45) were predictors of all-cause mortality. CONCLUSIONS The non-dipping profile of CHD patients and increased mortality were related to a lack of antihypertensive drug administration at bedtime.