Ambulatory blood pressure and risk of heart failure: a mini-review

Abstract

The aim of this mini-review is to report current knowledge about the association between ambulatory blood pressure and risk of heart failure in hypertension. We conducted a literature search through PubMed, Web of science and Cochrane Library by using terms such as ambulatory blood pressure, 24-hour blood pressure, daytime blood pressure, nighttime blood pressure, hypertension, heart failure. We identified 4 studies including 7891 patients who developed 260 cases of heart failure during the follow-up. The evaluation of published studies indicates that ambulatory blood pressure is superior to clinic blood pressure in predicting the occurrence of heart failure. Particularly, it has been reported that 24-hour blood pressure values, nighttime nondipping blood pressure pattern and ambulatory resistant hypertension are associated with increased risk of heart failure above clinic blood pressure. Nevertheless, there are still few data in the literature on this topic. Therefore, further studies are needed to broaden our knowledge on this matter to improve our therapeutic approach to prevent HF in hypertensive patients.