Alcohol consumption and ambulatory blood pressure-lowering effect in male patients on clinic blood pressure-guided antihypertensive treatment

Researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China investigated the association between alcohol consumption and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) control in male patients after 8 weeks of antihypertensive therapy with two dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers.
The study participants were hypertensive patients enrolled in a randomized controlled trial and treated with amlodipine 5-10 mg or nifedipine gastrointestinal therapeutic system (GITS) 30-60 mg once daily. Alcohol consumption was classified as non-drinkers and drinkers. Non-dipping was defined as a BP drop from daytime to night-time <10%. At baseline, the 131 alcohol drinkers, compared with 141 non-drinkers, had a significantly higher night-time systolic/diastolic BP (129.3 ± 13.5/83.8 ± 9.5 vs. 125.7 ± 12.3/80.9 ± 8.2 mmHg), night-to-day ratio for both systolic (89.1 ± 8.5 vs. 87.0 ± 7.1%) and diastolic BP (88.7 ± 8.8 vs. 86.5 ± 7.9%) and prevalence of non-dippers for systolic (45.0% vs. 33.3%) and diastolic BP (42.0% vs. 29.8%). However, they had similar clinic and 24-hour and daytime ambulatory BP at baseline. Antihypertensive treatment significantly reduced clinic and ambulatory systolic and diastolic BP from baseline in both alcohol drinkers and non-drinkers at 4 and 8 weeks of follow-up. However, in patients with a non-dipping pattern at baseline, the proportion of dippers for systolic/diastolic BP at 8 weeks of follow-up (36.5% vs. 58.5%) was significantly lower in 67 alcohol drinkers than in 52 non-drinkers. Alcohol drinkers had higher night-time BP and a higher prevalence of non-dippers than non-drinkers.
Clinic blood pressure-guided antihypertensive treatment was insufficient in controlling night-time BP or changing the non-dipping to dipping pattern in alcohol drinkers with sustained clinic and ambulatory hypertension. Alcohol drinkers had higher night-time systolic and diastolic blood pressure than non-drinkers at baseline. Clinic blood pressure-guided antihypertensive treatment was insufficient in changing the non-dipping to dipping pattern in alcohol drinkers with sustained clinic and ambulatory hypertension.
Source: Ye XF, Wang WY, Wang XY, Huang QF, Sheng CS, Li Y, Wang JG. Alcohol consumption and ambulatory blood pressure-lowering effect in male patients on clinic blood pressure-guided antihypertensive treatment. Hypertens Res. 2025 Mar;48(3):983-993.