Introduction /Aim: Central blood pressure (BP) parameters arise as a novel tool in clinical practice. Mounting evidence demonstrates that central systolic BP has a closer correlation with target organ damage and a stronger value for predicting cardiovascular events. However, data regarding ambulatory measurement of central BP parameters and pulse wave velocity (PWV) are scarce including both healthy individuals and patients at risk for cardiovascular disease. In the latter group, a recent study has shown that central BP falls during night but less compared to peripheral BP. We sought to investigate whether this phenomenon is also observed in healthy individuals.

Methods: We recruited 50 healthy volunteers and performed 24h ambulatory measurement of PWV and central systolic BP using the validated Mobil-O-graph device.

Results: As expected, PWV correlated with 24 hour mean peripheral and central BP. However the strongest correlation presented between day PWV and day systolic BP (r=0.441, p=0.001). In addition, PWV decreased significantly during night following both peripheral and central BP (p<0.001). We also observed that central systolic BP exhibits a similar dipping profile compared to peripheral systolic BP but to a significant lesser degree (p=0.001).

Conclusion: The 24h ambulatory measurement of central hemodynamics provides important information regarding central BP and PWV.Central systolic BP decreases similarly, though at a smaller scale, compared with peripheral BP throughout the night, a phenomenon observed in both healthy individuals and patients at cardiovascular risk. Whether this phenomenon is a physiological response or an index of vascular pathology remains to be further investigated.