[Ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate at 60 +/- 5 years. Differences between men and women]

Ambulatory measurements of systolic and diastolic arterial pressures and heart rate were performed during daytime in 68 subjects (37 men and 31 women) of mean age 55 +/- 5 years. These subjects had no history of cardiovascular or cerebral disease and no clinical or biochemical abnormalities. Bar charts for ages showed unimodal distribution with a 59-year mode in both sexes. Hourly profiles of arterial pressures and heart rate from 09:00 to 22:00 h were established in both groups. Throughout that time ambulatory arterial pressures were constantly higher in men than in women, especially in the morning (about 09:00 - 10:00 h; p less than 0.01), late in the afternoon and in the evening (17:00 to 22:00 h; p less than 0.01). In contrast, women always had a higher heart rate than men, the difference being greatest in the morning till early afternoon (10:00 to 15:00 h; p less than 0.01) and in the late evening (22:00 h; p less than 0.01). A difference in arterial pressures between men and women has already been recognized in younger subjects. It would be interesting to find out whether it increases or decreases in subjects older than those of the present study.