Association between annual visit-to-visit blood pressure variability and stroke in postmenopausal women: data from the Women's Health Initiative.

ABSTRACT: Accumulating evidence suggests that increased visit-to-visit variability (VVV) of blood pressure is associated with stroke. No study has examined the association between VVV of blood pressure and stroke in postmenopausal women, and scarce data exist as to whether this relation is independent of the temporal trend of blood pressure. We examined the association of VVV of blood pressure with stroke in 58,228 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative. Duplicate blood pressure readings, which were averaged, were taken at baseline and at each annual visit. VVV was defined as the SD for the participant's mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) across visits (SD) and about the participant's regression line with SBP regressed across visits (SDreg). Over a median follow-up of 5.4 yea

SUBMITTER: Shimbo D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3427141 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature