Diurnal Variation in Blood Pressure and Arterial Stiffness in Chronic Kidney Disease

Abstract— Hypertension and arterial stiffness are important independent cardiovascular risk factors in chronic kidney disease (CKD) to which endothelin-1 (ET-1) contributes. Loss of nocturnal blood pressure (BP) dipping is associated with CKD progression, but there are no data on 24-hour arterial stiffness variation. We examined the 24-hour variation of BP, arterial stiffness, and the ET system in healthy volunteers and patients with CKD and the effects on these of ET receptor type A receptor antagonism (sitaxentan). There were nocturnal dips in systolic BP and diastolic BP and pulse wave velocity, our measure of arterial stiffness, in 15 controls (systolic BP, −3.2±4.8%, P P =0.001; pulse wave velocity, −5.8±5.2%, P P P P Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifiers: NCT01770847 and NCT00810732.