Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(5):321-327

The relationship between the sleep quality and blood pressure values before and after therapy with rilmenidine

Farský Š¹, Šidlo R²

¹ Dom srdca, s.r.o. v Martine

² OVB Allfinanz Slovensko, a.s. v Bratislave, Slovenská republika

The study was aimed at determining a potential correlation between the morning values of blood pressure and the sleep quality during the previous night in patients with fixed hypertension treated with medicaments, and at finding whether a therapy with rilmenidine has positive effects not only on the value of blood pressure, but also on improving the sleep quality through a decrease in the sympathicus activity. During a previous study with the sample of 1,216 patients with hypertension and metabolic syndrome, it was demonstrated that 59% of the patients reported improved sleep during a treatment with rilmenidine. We have examined 993 patients with essential hypertension who have not reached the target values of blood pressure in spite of a therapy with medicaments, and with abdominal obesity found in 79% of the patients. The therapy with rilmenidine was added to their previous treatment, and the study duration was 3 months. At the beginning and at the end of the study, anthropometric and basic biochemistry examinations were performed, repeated measurement of the blood pressure and heart rate in 10 min intervals was made in outpatient departments of internal medicine specialists, as well as an evaluation of the sleep quality according to the Athens Insomnia Scale questionnaire. After adding rilmenidine to their hypertension therapy, a decrease was found in systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, heart rate and increase in sleep quality. The changes were highly significant (p<0.0001). The coefficients of correlation between the systolic blood pressure values and the sleep quality were 0.08 (p<0.0226) at the beginning of the study and 0.14 (p < 0.0001) at the end of the study, and were 0.08 (p<0.015) between the diastolic blood pressure values and the sleep quality at the end of the study. The coefficients of correlation between the difference of the systolic blood pressure values and the difference between results of the questionnaire at the beginning and the end of the study were -0.09 (p< 0.0064). The results of our study acknowledged a positive effect of rilmenidine in hypertension therapy due to a significant decrease of the blood pressure, slowing of the heart rate and improvement of the sleep quality evaluated by the standardized questionnaire. In addition, interesting associations were found between the sleep quality and values of the systolic blood pressure, and partly also between diastolic blood pressure before the start of therapy with rilmenidine and during the therapy. These results are in concordance with the current literature data that demonstrate that a decreased length and an impaired quality of sleep have a negative effect on blood pressure values and occurrence of hypertension, as well as the overall cardiovascular risk in adolescent and adult persons.

Keywords: sleep; sleep quality; blood pressure; hypertension; rilmenidine

Published: May 1, 2015  Show citation