Blood Pressure Variability and Heart Failure Hospitalization: Results From the Women's Health Initiative

Abstract

Introduction: Little is known about the relationships between annual visit-to-visit blood pressure variability and heart failure subphenotypes. The aim of this analysis was to examine the association between blood pressure variability and incident heart failure with preserved and reduced ejection fraction.

Methods: Data from 23,918 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Hormone Therapy Trials were analyzed. Blood pressure was measured at baseline (1993‒1998) and then annually through 2005. Variability was defined as the SD of the mean blood pressure across visits or the SD of the participant's regression line for blood pressure across visits. The outcome was the first heart failure hospitalization. Heart failure ascertainment and adjudications were through March 31, 2018.

Results: During a mean follow-up of 15.8 years, 913 incident cases of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and 421 cases of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction were identified. In fully adjusted models, including mean longitudinal systolic and diastolic blood pressure and time-varying coronary events interim to heart failure hospitalization, women in the highest versus in the lowest quartile of SD of the mean systolic blood pressure were at a statistically significantly higher risk of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (hazard ratio [95% CI]=1.61 [1.12, 2.31]) but not of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (1.18 [0.70,1.96]). Conversely, the hazard ratio (95% CI) for the highest versus lowest quartile of SD of the mean diastolic blood pressure was 1.56 (0.89, 2.74) for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and 1.19 (0.85,1.65) for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Results attenuated for SD of the participant's regression line when additionally adjusted for the temporal trend of systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Conclusions: Greater systolic blood pressure variability was associated with a higher risk of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction independent of mean blood pressure and coronary events interim to heart failure hospitalization.