Reverse blood pressure dipping as marker of dysautonomia in Parkinson disease.

INTRODUCTION

We sought to evaluate if the presence of abnormal circadian loss of nocturnal blood pressure dipping (reverse dipping) is associated with cardiovascular dysautonomia, a major source of morbidity in Parkinson disease.

METHODS

Consecutive Parkinson disease patients were enrolled in this cross-sectional study between January 2015 and June 2017. All subjects underwent same-day autonomic testing and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Cardiovascular dysautonomia was defined by the presence of at least one moderate or severe cardiovagal and adrenergic test abnormality.

RESULTS

We recruited 114 PD patients (79 males; mean age 64 ± 10 years; disease duration 6 ± 4 years). Cardiovascular dysautonomia was present in 32% (36/114). The blood pressure patterns were normal dipping in 28.9% (n = 33), extreme dipping in 6.1% (n = 7), reduced dipping in 32.5% (n = 37), and reverse dipping in 32.5% (n = 37). Reverse dipping was disproportionately prevalent in subjects with cardiovascular dysautonomia (69% vs 15%, p < 0.001). The diagnostic accuracy of reverse dipping in discriminating cardiovascular dysautonomia (AUC 0.791, specificity 84%, sensitivity 69%) was higher than that of bedside blood pressure ascertainment of neurogenic orthostatic hypotension (0.681, 66%, 69%) and supine hypertension (0.641, 78%, 50%).

CONCLUSIONS

Reverse nocturnal blood pressure dipping is a marker of cardiovascular dysautonomia in Parkinson disease, which can be screened for with ease and affordability using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.