Correspondence between screening and intra‐arterial blood pressures in young men with borderline hypertension

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Abstract
Objectives. To evaluate the screening blood pressure (BP) for identification of individuals with a mild but persistent elevation of BP refered to as borderline hypertension (BH).Design. Based on screening data from approximately 10500 men at a military enlistment centre in 1987; an unbiased population sample of young men were recruited. Blood pressure follow‐up and investigation of anthropometric and metabolic data were made at Östra Hospital.Subjects. Men aged 19.8 years (range 17–28) were screened. Three hundred and six were found to have elevated BP (systolic BP (SBP) > 145 mmHg and/or diastolic BP (DBP) ≥ 85 mmHg). Of these, 179 were re‐examined after 1–3 years, by which time three individuals exceeded the limits for established hypertension and 80 fulfilled the BP criteria for BH (in two out of two blood pressure measurements). Fifty‐four of these BH individuals were investigated with intra‐arterial (i.a.) BP measurements. A normotensive control (NC) group (SBP 110–130 and DBP 60–80 mmHg; n = 20) from the same population was examined concomitantly.Results. At screening, at the 2‐year clinic follow‐up and again during the intra‐arterial recording, SBP was significantly different in BH vs. NC. With DBP an increasing difference between the groups was observed with time. There were highly significant correlations between screening and 2‐year clinic BP (r = 0.72, P < 0.001; n = 74) and screening and i.a. BP (r = 0.57, P < 0.001; n = 74).Conclusions. These data show that there is a correspondence between BP at the screening procedure and i.a. BP measured 2 years later, indicating that the screening procedure is a useful way of identifying young men with mild but persistent BP elevation. This interpretation is supported by metabolic and biochemical differences between the groups.