OBJECTIVE To investigate whether red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is associated with the blood pressure (BP) reverse-dipper pattern in patients with hypertension. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Single centre. PARTICIPANTS Patients with essential hypertension were included in our study (n=708). The exclusion criteria included age <18 or >90 years, incomplete clinical data, ni...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the circadian blood pressure (BP) rhythm and endothelial function in patients with essential hypertension. BACKGROUND Hypertension is associated with alterations in resistance artery endothelial function. Patients with a non-dipper circadian pattern of BP have a greater risk of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular com...

OBJECTIVE The rate of reduction of nocturnal blood pressure (NBP) is lesser than normal in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (type 2 DM). Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHC) disrupts vascular structure and function, no matter the underlying causes. The risk of development of vascular disease is greater in diabetic patients with hyperhomocysteinemia than in patients with normal homocystein levels. T...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship between the level of serum cystatin C (s-CC) and reverse-dipper blood pressure (BP) pattern. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Single centre. PARTICIPANTS A total of 718 hypertensive patients were eventually recruited from cardiac clinics between 2012 and 2014 in the Second Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University. They were diagnosed as...

The following three case reports present the effects of 6-month continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy on blood pressure (BP) in severe obstructive sleep apnea patients with resistant hypertension. Case 1 A 58-year-old woman exhibited a decreased 24-hour BP and changes in the nocturnal BP dipping pattern from non-dipper to dipper. Case 2 A 64-year-old man showed no improvements in n...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Non-dipper hypertension is frequently accompanied by endothelial dysfunction and activation. Previous studies suggested that endocan may be a novel endothelial dysfunction marker. This study aims to investigate the association between circadian blood pressure (BP) pattern and plasma endocan levels together with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) in patients wi...

BACKGROUND Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an independent predictor of cardiac mortality, regardless of its etiology. Previous studies have shown that high nocturnal blood pressure (BP) affects LV geometry in hypertensive patients. It has been suggested that continuous pressure overload affects the development of LVH, but it is unknown whether persistent pressure influences myocardial fib...

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between nocturnal variations in blood pressure (BP) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in different gender.This cross-sectional study involved 509 hypertensive patients (254 males and 255 females, 45 to 75 years old) from September 2013 to March 2014. BP values were acquired from ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM). The dipper pattern of BP was ...

In human vision, the response to luminance contrast at each small region in the image is controlled by a more global process where suppressive signals are pooled over spatial frequency and orientation bands. But what rules govern summation among stimulus components within the suppressive pool? We addressed this question by extending a pedestal plus pattern mask paradigm to use a stimulus with u...