Circadian rhythm of blood pressure is transformed from a dipper to a non-dipper pattern in shift workers with hypertension

Mar 16, 2002Journal of human hypertension

Shift workers with high blood pressure lose the normal daily drop in blood pressure

AI simplified

Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Blood pressure patterns in shift workers with untreated hypertension changed from a dipper to a non-dipper pattern after the first night shift.

Night-time blood pressure in day-shift workers exhibited a dipper pattern, indicating a normal circadian rhythm.
On the first day of night shifts, average blood pressure differences during the sleep-wake cycle decreased by 8.5%, reflecting a non-dipper pattern.
The blood pressure pattern reverted to a dipper pattern after four days of night shifts.
These findings suggest that night shift work may negatively impact blood pressure regulation in individuals with hypertension.

AI simplified

Shift workers make great use of health care services because they are associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Whether the circadian rhythm of blood pressure rapidly adapts to shift work is controversial. It is unknown if shift work has adverse effects on blood pressure in patients with hypertension. To evaluate the effects of shift work, we examined 12 male shift workers with untreated hypertension aged 53.6 +/- 2.5 years. Twenty-four hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was performed three times as follows: the last day of a 4-day period of day shifts (09.00 to 21.00), the first day of a 4-day period of night shifts (21.00 to 09.00), and the fourth day of night shifts (21.00 to 09.00). Blood pressure at night-time dropped significantly in the day-shift workers, showing a dipper pattern. Average differences in blood pressure in the sleep-wake cycle were decreased by 8.5% at the beginning of night shift work showing a non-dipper pattern. After 4 days the pattern was completely reversed to a dipper pattern. The results indicate that the circadian blood pressure pattern is changed from a dipper to a non-dipper pattern on the first day of the night shift and reverses to a dipper pattern within a few days. We suggest that night shift work may have unfavourable effects on blood pressure in patients with hypertension.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View full text (PDF) ↗View full text (HTML) ↗

Circadian rhythm of blood pressure is transformed from a dipper to a non-dipper pattern in shift workers with hypertension

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief

Abstract

Full Text

Related papers

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief