Correlation Between Thyroid Function and Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring

Background: Blood pressure is associated with overt thyroid disorders, but the role of subclinical diseases is not clear, particularly when blood pressure is assessed at the clinical office. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring over 24 h provides additional clinical information, which correlates with many cardiovascular endpoints. The aim of our work is to examine whether thyroid function is related to systolic and diastolic blood pressure assessed by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Methods: We enrolled 3277 subjects from the SardiNIA project. Thyroid function and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring were assessed in all the participants. Results: TSH was associated with average 24 h and daytime DBP in males but not in females, after adjusting for confounders (respectively, Coef -0.192 p = 0.025, and Coef. -0.021, p = 0.018). We found no association between TSH and DBP or SBP during nighttime. Conclusions: Low TSH in males is positively associated with high DBP. Further studies of underlying mechanisms will need to explore our findings.