Assessment of Blood Pressure Variability in Postmenopausal Women.

INTRODUCTION: Increase in blood pressure is the leading cause of comorbidity, especially cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, but its variability represents an independent risk factor for the same in menopausal women. Dramatic decrease of estrogen production in menopause interferes with many metabolic pathways leading to insulin resistance, increased body mass index (BMI) and dyslipidemia hence cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. In this study an assessment of the variability of blood pressure in postmenopausal women and its association with BMI have been highlighted.

METHOD: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 175 postmenopausal females more than 50 years of age who were admitted to or visited medicine wards with no known major medical condition were enrolled between June and July 2019. Recording of both diastolic and systolic blood pressure of postmenopausal women was done at 6 am, 12 pm and 7 pm manually by mercury sphygmomanometer. In addition, BMI, neck circumference, and lipid profile values were also recorded.

RESULTS: Variation of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure at 6 am, 12 pm and 7 pm in association with various parameters like BMI (more than 25 kg/m2 ) were 128.57 ± 12.68/78.93 ± 9.56; 124.64 ± 12.32/77.14 ± 5.35 and 124.29 ± 12.60/75.36 ± 6.37 mmHg respectively. Neck circumference (>32 cm) was similar at 128.89 ± 13.49/79.86 ± 8.47; 124.58 ± 12.99/77.08 ± 7.59 and 125.56 ± 12.21/76.94 ± 7.62 mmHg respectively.

CONCLUSION: BMI and neck circumference as well as triglyceride and cholesterol increase may all independently contribute to the blood pressure variability in menopausal women.