• Aleksandra Ostrowska, Wiktoria Wojciechowska, Marek Rajzer, Thomas Weber, Michael Bursztyn, Alexandre Persu, George Stergiou, Grzegorz Kiełbasa, Marzena Chrostowska, Michaelis Doumas, Gianfranco Parati, Grzegorz Bilo, Guido Grassi, Giuseppe Mancia, Andrzej Januszewicz, Reinhold Kreutz, and ESH ABPM COVID-19 Study Investigators.
• 1st Department of Cardiology, Interventional Electrocardiology and Arterial Hypertension, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland.
• Eur. J. Intern. Med. 2024 Sep 10.

ObjectiveThe COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on medical care. This study evaluated the influence of the pandemic on blood pressure (BP) control and hypertension phenotypes as assessed by office and 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM).Design And MethodsData were collected from 33 centers including Excellence Centers of the European Society of Hypertension. Two groups of patients with treated hypertension were compared. Pandemic group: including participants who had ABPM twice - at visit 2 during the COVID-19 pandemic and visit 1 performed 9-15 months prior to visit 2. Pre-pandemic group: had ABPM at two visits, performed before the pandemic within 9-15 months interval. We determined the following hypertension phenotypes: masked hypertension, white coat hypertension, sustained controlled hypertension (SCH) and sustained uncontrolled hypertension (SUCH). We analyzed the prevalence of phenotypes and their changes between visits.ResultsData of 1419 patients, 616 (43 %) in the pandemic group and 803 (57 %) in the pre-pandemic group, were analyzed. At baseline (visit 1), the prevalence of hypertension phenotypes did not differ between groups. In the pandemic group, the change in hypertension phenotypes between two visits was not significant (p = 0.08). In contrast, in the pre-pandemic group, the prevalence of SCH increased during follow-up (28.8 % vs 38.4 %, p < 0.01) while the prevalence of SUCH decreased (34.2 % vs 27.8 %, p < 0.01). In multivariable adjusted analysis, the only factor influencing negative changes of hypertension phenotypes was the COVID-19 pandemic period.ConclusionThese results indicate a negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on BP control assessed by hypertension phenotypes.Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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