Short-term reproducibility of the 24-h ambulatory monitoring of brachial and central hemodynamics in untreated Chinese.

OBJECTIVE: Advanced technology allows non-invasive monitoring of the 24-h brachial and central hemodynamics simultaneously. However, related reproducibility data was limited in White patients. We therefore explored if the novel measurements would be reproducible in Chinese.

METHODS: From February 2017 to January 2018, 152 untreated patients who were suspected of hypertension and referred for ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring were recruited. Ambulatory BP monitoring was repeated within one month (median, 12.5 days) using the Mobil-O-Graph monitors (IEM, Germany). Reproducibility was assessed as the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), coefficient of variation (CV), and repeatability coefficient (RC).

RESULTS: The 152 participants (average age, 58.6 years) included 54 men and 98 women. The first and second means of the ambulatory brachial and central BPs, pulse wave velocity (PWV), augmentation pressure, augmentation index (AIx) and AIx at a heart rate of 75 beats per minute (AIx@75) were all similar (p ≥ 0.065), except that the repeated daytime and 24-h brachial and central systolic BPs and pulse pressure slightly differed by approximately 1-2 mmHg (p ≤ 0.011). ICC ranged from 0.70 to 0.94 for all ambulatory BPs and ≥0.91 for the arterial measurements. CV was in the range from 5.0% to 10.3% for all BPs and PWV measurements, and from 15.5% to 22.3% for AIx and AIx@75. RC expressed as percentages of maximal variation was <15% for the PWVs and ranged from 25.5% to 54.7% for BPs, AIx and AIx@75.

CONCLUSIONS: The 24-h ambulatory brachial and central BPs and arterial measurements were reproducible within a short time period in Chinese, and could therefore be used in clinical practice and research settings.