Correlation Analysis Of The Changes Of Postural Blood Pressure And Neurodegenerative Disease In Elderly Patients With Hypertension

ObjectiveTo investigate the correlation between postural blood pressure changes and the complications of neurodegenerative diseases in elderly patients over 80 years old who were diagnosed with hypertension in Grade A tertiary Hospitals through a large sample cross-sectional survey.MethodsA multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted among very old patients(≥ 80 years)with hypertension using questionnaire-based surveys at 28 Grade A tertiary Hospitals.A total of 1562 subjects aged between 80 and 105 were enrolled in this study.Blood pressures were measured in the sitting position,the supine position and the upright position within 3 minutes of standing.387 patients were diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension(OH),the other 1175 patients were diagnosed with nonorthostatic hypotension(NOH).Additional information was acquired through patients’ medical records and the questionnaire.ResultsThe prevalence of OH was 24.8%(387 cases).OH patients had higher rates suffering from neurodegenerative diseases than NOH patients.There was a 2.3% complication rate with Alzheimer’s disease among OH patients as compared to the 0.5% in NOH patients,and 5.2% to 0.7% for Parkinson’s disease(P = 0.001,0.000,respectively).The results of a logistic regression analysis indicated that Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease were both positively correlated with the prevalence of OH(OR=0.531,95%CI=1.720~13.760,P=0.003;OR=0.432,95%CI=3.541~18.564,P=0.000,respectively).ConclusionsThe prevalence of orthostatic hypotension is high in elderly hypertensive patients over 80 years old at multiple Grade A tertiary Hospitals.Elderly hypertensive patients complicated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are likely to develop OH.