Impaired systolic blood pressure recovery directly after standing predicts mortality in older falls clinic patients.

BACKGROUND: Normally, standing up causes a blood pressure (BP) drop within 15 seconds, followed by recovery to baseline driven by BP control mechanisms. The prognostic value of this initial BP drop, but also of the recovery hereafter, is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the prognostic value of these BP characteristics in response to standing.
METHODS: In a retrospective cohort study of 238 consecutive patients visiting our falls outpatient clinic, we examined the relation between all-cause mortality and BP decline and recovery directly after active standing up with Cox proportional hazards analyses.
RESULTS: Of 238 patients (mean age 78.4 ± 7.8 years), during a median follow-up of 21.0 months, 36 (15%) patients died. Neither absolute nor relative (%) initial BP drop after standing predicted mortality. In contrast, the magnitude of BP recovery 40-60 seconds after standing was associated with mortality, even after adjustment for age, comorbidity, and other baseline characteristics. When systolic BP had recovered to less than 80% of prestanding baseline after 60 seconds of standing, this was a powerful independent predictor of mortality (hazard ratio: 3.00; 95% confidence interval 1.17-7.68).
CONCLUSIONS: Failure to recover from BP decline in the first minute after active standing up is associated with excess mortality in falls clinic patients. A recovery of systolic BP to less than 80% of baseline after 60 seconds may be used as an easily available cardiovascular marker for increased mortality risk in older falls clinic patients.