About 11% of patients who developed HF had orthostatic
hypotension vs. 4% of those without the condition, according to recent study
results.
More than 12,000 patients free of prevalent HF at baseline with
orthostatic measurements were included in the Atherosclerosis Risk in
Communities (ARIC) study. This population-based study enrolled men and women
aged 45 to 64 years from Mississippi, Maryland, Minnesota and North Carolina.
Researchers identified incident HF from hospitalization or death certificate
disease codes.
After multivariable adjustment, Christine DeLong Jones, MD, of the
department of social medicine and department of epidemiology at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues found that orthostatic
hypotension was associated with incident HF during 17.5 years of follow-up
(HR=1.54; 95% CI, 1.3-1.82), which was also similar across race and sex groups.
Researchers noted a stronger association between orthostatic
hypotension and incident HF among patients aged 55 years and younger (HR=1.9;
95% CI, 1.41-2.55) vs. those aged 55 years and older (HR=1.37; 95% CI,
1.12-1.69). In secondary analyses, excluding patients with diabetes, CHD and
those taking antihypertensives, psychiatric or Parkinson’s disease medications
had little effect on the association between orthostatic hypotension and HF.
However, when patients with hypertension were excluded, the association between
the two lessened (HR=1.34; 95% CI, 1-1.8).
“Orthostatic hypotension appears to be related to the
development of HF along with other conditions known to cause HF,” Jones said in
a press release. “Hypertension, diabetes and CHD are already known to
contribute to a person’s risk of developing HF. Orthostatic BP measurement may
supplement what is already known about the risk for HF and requires no
additional equipment, just a standard BP cuff.”
Disclosure: The
researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.