[Disordered 24-hour blood pressure rhythm in normotensive and hypertensive asthma patients]

Asthmatic patients typically show a nocturnal increase in bronchial obstruction. In 100 asthmatic patients, we investigated if there is also a reduced decline of blood pressure; we used 24-h blood-pressure monitoring. The whole group consisted of 50 hypertensive asthmatic patients (group 1, 48.8 +/- 11 years, 30 females, 20 males), 25 normotensive asthmatic patients (group 2, 49.6 +/- 10 years, 22 females, 3 males) and 25 antihypertensive-treated asthmatic patients (group 3, 50.2 +/- 8 years, 15 females, 10 males). 52% of group 1, 52% of group 2, and 44% of group 3 patients showed no sufficient nocturnal systolic and diastolic blood pressure decline (less than - 15%). When we looked only for systolic blood pressure that was also the case in 82%, 92%, and 64% of the patient groups', respectively. There was no significant difference in daytime blood pressure between hypertensives (group 1) without (142 +/- 9/93 +/- 5 mmHg) and with 142 +/- 12/92 +/- 6 mmHg) sufficient nocturnal blood pressure decline, however, nighttime blood pressure (135 +/- 14/84 +/- 5 mmHg versus 123 +/- 14/72 +/- 6 mmHg) was significantly (p less than 0.0001) different. This was also true for the normotensive asthmatic patients (group 2). The results cannot be explained by differences in heart rate, degree of asthma, or in anti-obstructive medication.