Refined assessment of blood pressure instability after spinal cord injury

This study determined whether the Autonomic Dysfunction Following Spinal Cord Injury (ADFSCI) questionnaire, a measure of self-reported frequency and severity of symptoms during hypo- and hypertensive episodes, correlates with blood pressure (BP) instability. In addition, test-retest reliability of the ADFSCI questionnaire was assessed.

Thirty individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) (aged 42±12 years; level of lesion = C3-L1; American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale = A-C; lesion duration = 1 month to 30 years after injury) participated in this study. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) was used to assess BP instability. ABPM recorded systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), and heart rate at 15-minute intervals during the daytime and 1-hour intervals during the nighttime. Test-retest reliability was performed by completion of the ADFSCI questionnaire on 2 occasions (i.e., 9±4 days in between).

Individuals with SCI who self-reported autonomic dysreflexia (AD) episodes showed significantly higher SBP coefficient of variation (CV) (14%) and more AD events (n = 11) than individuals who reported never having AD symptoms (CV = 9%; AD events = 1). Both the number of AD events over the 24-hour period and the BP variability (SBP CV) were significantly related to the patients' self-reported total AD score (rho = 0.522, P = 0.005; rho = 0.584, P = 0.001, respectively) and daily AD frequency (rho = 0.553, P = 0.003; rho = 0.586, P = 0.001, respectively). Conversely, no significant correlations existed between the number of hypotensive events over the 24-hour period and self-reported frequency and severity in the ADFSCI questionnaire.

This study provides evidence that ABPM offers a strong clinical basis for documenting and understanding BP instability, such as AD, and related symptoms in individuals with SCI.