Methods: Thirteen patients with COPD underwent spirometry, blood gas, polysomnography and ABPM for blood pressure evaluation. Fourteen patients without COPD underwent spirometry, oximetry and ABPM. Blood pressure analyses were carried out both during wakefulness and sleep. Both groups were comprised of patients with no history of hypertension.Results: The two groups were similar as regards age, height, weight, and body mass index. A significant difference (p<0.05) was found between blood pressure levels during the wakefulness, sleep, 24-hour and sleep dip periods. Higher blood pressure levels were observed in patients with COPD, except for diastolic levels during wakefulness and maximum values during sleep and in the 24 hours. Sleep dip in the COPD group was attenuated, whereas physiological dip was observed in the control group, with lower blood pressure levels.Conclusions: Systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels in the COPD group were higher than those of the control group, with a significant difference found for all periods studied, except for diastolic levels during wakefulness and in the 24 hours. We can conclude that the group of COPD patients with sleep desaturation has significantly higher blood pressure levels than the control group. ( cardiovascular diseases increases with blood pressure (BP) elevation 9,10 . In addition to showing scarce and conflicting data on blood pressure in patients with COPD, the literature also points out the need for further studies to explain the behavior of blood pressure during sleep desaturation and, most importantly, its effects on target organs. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is the diagnostic tool that provides this analysis, thus permitting the knowledge of the pattern of blood pressure variations during wakefulness and sleep 11,12 .The objective of this study was to evaluate the behavior of blood pressure in the 24 hours, in COPD patients with sleep desaturation not caused by apnea, using ABPM parameters.
MethodologyThis is a descriptive, cross-sectional study of patients with COPD referred to the pulmonary rehabilitation program of the Pneumology outpatient clinic of Hospital Universitário de Brasília (HUB).
Inclusion criteriaA total of 13 patients clinically and functionally (spirometry: FEV1/FVC lower than 0.70 post bronchodilator) diagnosed