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Aim of the present study was to verify whether average blood pressure continuously recorded throughout the day correlates with the degree of target organ damage more closely than casual pressure in hypertensive patients. The study was conducted in 102 subjects with borderline, moderate and severe hypertension. Our results confirm a closer relationship between cardiovascular complications and recorder blood pressure than casual pressure possibly because the latter less perfectly reflects the patients usual pressures which are generally lower. However our results further demonstrate that blood pressure variability also contributes to the degree of target organ damage since for equal average day-time pressures a greater severity of cardiovascular complications was observed in patients with the highest blood pressure variability and the highest peaks of pressure. These findings should be carefully considered when evaluating the effect of antihypertensive drugs.

In 30 highly trained boys aged 10-14 the prevalence of ventricular ectopic beats and Q-T interval duration were studied. In trained boys ECG Holter monitoring showed a higher even though not significantly different prevalence of ventricular arrhythmias than in 30 age-matched untrained controls. Ventricular ectopy was on the contrary lower than in a group of 30 adult athletes. Q-T corrected (Q-T_c) interval in the trained boys was longer than in the sedentary controls (p < 0.001), while it was as long as in the adult athletes. No correlation was found between the degree of severity of ventricular ectopic beats and Q-T_c interval duration, heart rate or echocardiographic dimensional and functional findings. The clinical and prognostic importance of complex ventricular arrhythmias detected in healthy athletes remains to be elucidated.

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