Long-term visit-to-visit office blood pressure variability increases the risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease

Long-term visit-to-visit blood pressure (BP) variability predicts a high risk for cardiovascular events in patients with essential hypertension. Whether long-term visit-to-visit BP variability holds the same predictive power in predialysis patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is unknown. Here we tested the relationship between long-term visit-to-visit office BP variability and a composite end point (death and incident cardiovascular events) in a cohort of 1618 patients with stage 2-5 CKD. Visit-to-visit systolic BP variability was significantly and independently related to baseline office, maximal, and average systolic BPs, age, glucose, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and albumin, and to the number of visits during the follow-up. Both the standard deviation of systolic BP (hazard ratio: 1.11, 95% confidence interval: 1.01-1.20) and the coefficient of variation of systolic BP (hazard ratio: 1.15, 95% confidence interval: 1.02-1.29) were significant predictors of the combined end point independent of peak and average systolic BP, cardiovascular comorbidities, Framingham risk factors, and CKD-related risk factors. Antihypertensive treatment (β-blockers and sympatholytic drugs) significantly abrogated the excess risk associated with high systolic BP variability. Thus, large visit-to-visit systolic BP variability in patients with CKD predicts a higher risk of death and nonfatal cardiovascular events independent of underlying BP levels.