Epidemiology of Hypertension among Patients on Peritoneal Dialysis Using Standardized Office and Ambulatory Blood Pressure Recordings

Introduction: Prior studies conducted in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients in the late 1990s provided considerably variable estimates of the prevalence and control of hypertension. The present study aimed to investigate the current state of hypertension management in this high-risk population. Methods: In 140 stable PD patients, we performed standardized automated office blood pressure (BP) measurements and 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) using the Mobil-O-Graph device (IEM, Germany). Office and ambulatory hypertension was diagnosed in patients with office BP >= 140/90 mm Hg and 24-h BP >= 130/80 mm Hg, respectively. Patients treated with >= 1 BP-lowering medications were also classified as hypertensives. Results: The prevalence of office and ambulatory hypertension was 92.9% and 95%, respectively. In all, 92.1% of patients were being treated with an average of 2.4 BP-lowering medications daily. Adequate BP control was achieved in 52.3% and 38.3% of hypertensives by office BP and ABPM, respectively. The agreement between these 2 techniques in the identification of patients with BP levels above the diagnostic thresholds of hypertension was moderate (k-statistic: 0.524). In all, 5% of patients were normotensives with both techniques, 31.4% had controlled hypertension, 5% had white-coat hypertension, 19.3% had masked hypertension, and 39.3% had sustained hypertension. Isolated nocturnal hypertension was detected in 23.6% of patients, whereas no patient had isolated daytime hypertension. Conclusion: Among PD patients, hypertension is highly prevalent and remains often inadequately controlled. The use of ABPM enables the better classification of severity of hypertension and identification of isolated nocturnal hypertension, which is a common BP phenotype in the PD population.