Non-dipper hypertension is associated with slow coronary flow among hypertensives with normal coronary angiogram

Abstract

AIM: A person with a drop of more than 10% in nocturnal arterial blood pressure during the circadian rhythm is referred to as a dipper and one with a smaller decrease is referred to as a non-dipper. In our study, we aimed to compare the thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) frame count in non-dipper and dipper hypertensive patient groups who had normal coronary artery angiography. METHODS: Patients with normal coronary arteries and with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring follow ups were retrospectively investigated and 60 patients (35%, female) were included in our study. The patients were grouped as dipper (n = 30) and non-dipper (n = 30) hypertensives. RESULTS: in the dipper patient group, while it was 25.47 ± 2.92 in the non-dippers. BMI was found to be significantly higher in the non-dipper group than in the dipper group (p = 0.027). CONCLUSION: In this study, TIMI frame count, which is a simple, productive, objective and reproducible method for determination of microvascular changes, was found to be higher in non-dipper hypertensive patients than in the dipper patients.