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Background: Short-term blood pressure (BP) variability (BPV) is associated with increased cardiovascular risk in hemodialysis. Patients with intradialytic hypertension have high risk of adverse outcomes. Whether BPV is increased in these patients is not clear. The purpose of this study was to compare short-term BPV in patients with and without intradialytic hypertension. Methods: Forty-one patients with and 82 patients without intradialytic hypertension (intradialytic SBP rise ≥10 mm Hg to > 150 mm Hg) matched in a 1: 2 ratio for age, sex, and hemodialysis vintage were included. All subjects underwent 48-h ambulatory BP monitoring during a regular hemodialysis and the subsequent interdialytic interval. Brachial and aortic BPV were calculated with validated formulas and compared between the 2 groups during the 48-h and the 44-h periods and during the 2 daytime and nighttime periods respectively. Results: During 48-h or 44-h periods and daytime or nighttime, brachial SBP/DBP and aortic SBP/DBP were significantly higher in cases than in controls. All brachial SBP/DBP BPV indexes [SD, weighted SD (wSD), coefficient-of-variation (CV) and average-real-variability (ARV)] were not significantly different between groups during the 48- or 44-h periods (48-h: SBP-ARV 11.59 ± 3.05 vs. 11.70 ± 2.68, p = 0.844, DBP-ARV: 8.60 ± 1.90 vs. 8.90 ± 1.63, p = 0.357). Analysis stratified by day or night between days 1 and 2 revealed, in general, similar results. No significant differences in dipping pattern were observed between groups. Analysis of aortic BPV had similar findings. Conclusions: BPV is similar between those with and without intradialytic hypertension. However, those with intradialytic hypertension have a sustained increase in systolic and diastolic BP during the entire interdialytic interval.

Background/Aims: The hypothesis that dialytic modality affects arterial stiffness was never investigated. This study includes comparative evaluation of hemodiafiltration versus hemodialysis on arterial function during first and second weekly dialysis sessions. Methods: 24 patients receiving hemodiafiltration and another 24 age- and sex-matched controls receiving hemodialysis were included. Patients were evaluated before and after first and second weekly dialysis sessions. Applanation tonometry of peripheral arteries was applied to determine aortic and brachial pulse wave velocity and heart rate-adjusted augmentation index (AIx(75)). Results: Hemodiafiltration and hemodialysis reduced AIx(75), but not aortic and brachial pulse wave velocity. Intradialytic reductions in AIx(75) did not differ between hemodiafiltration and hemodialysis in first and mid-week dialysis. In multivariate linear regression, predictors of intradialytic reduction in AIx(75) were changes in body weight and central aortic systolic blood pressure, but not dialytic modality. Conclusion: This study showed that hemodiafiltration has similar effects with hemodialysis on wave reflections and stiffness.