Limited reproducibility of circadian variation in blood pressure dippers and nondippers.

The relation between blood pressure (BP) variation and hypertensive organ damage is controversial. The reproducibility of the circadian variation pattern acceptable as the standard for discriminating between "dippers" and "nondippers" has not yet been evaluated. We evaluated the reproducibility of "dipper" and "nondipper" patterns in essential hypertensives by monitoring BP for 48 h. Noninvasive ambulatory BP and heart rate (HR) monitoring for 48 h every 30 min were performed in 253 untreated patients with mild-to-moderate essential hypertension. Mean daytime (awake) and nighttime (sleeping) systolic BP, diastolic BP, and HR values were analyzed by reviewing the patients' diaries. Patients were divided into two groups by presence (dippers) and absence (nondippers) of a reduction of both systolic and diastolic BP during the night of > 10% of the daytime pressure. A subject who was a dipper on day 1 remained a dipper on day 2 in 41% (n = 103, DD group) and changed to nondipper in 16% (n = 41, DN group). A subject who was a nondipper on day 1 remained a nondipper on day 2 in 30% (n = 75, NN group) and changed to a dipper in 13% (n = 34, ND group). Our findings indicate that there is a high risk of false-positive or false-negative results when 24-h recordings are used to identify dipper and nondipper profiles.