BACKGROUND: To investigate the relationship between nocturnal blood pressure (BP) variation and silent cerebral infarction (SCI) in hypertensive patients. METHODS: We retrospectively collected demographic, clinical, and laboratory data from 188 Chinese hypertensive patients (111 with SCI, 77 with non-SCI) and analyzed nocturnal BP variation in the SCI and non-SCI patients. Multiple logistic regression was used for analysis. RESULTS: We found that both single and multiple SCI were more common in nondipping patients than dipping patients. In further analysis comparing the SCI group with the non-SCI group, we found that carotid artery plaques and duration of hypertension were independent risk factors of SCI (p<0.05). The nocturnal BP fall (r=-10.614, p=0.000) was also found to be negatively correlated with SCI in our study. In addition, the prevalence of nondipping was not different between the users of three different classes of antihypertensive drugs. CONCLUSION: Our ambulatory blood pressure monitoring study suggested that nondipping was associated with both single and multiple SCI. Abnormal circadian blood pressure rhythm, a parameter in evaluating injury of brain blood vessels, might be a risk factor of SCI.
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