Elderly Blood Pressure Risks rise on hot nights

While the blood pressure of elderly people tends to lower during the hot days of summer, Italian researchers at the University of Florence in Italy are finding blood pressure actually rises on hot nights among those treated with anti-hypertensive drugs.

As a result, medical researchers are advising that blood pressure medication not be reduced in the summer, even if BP readings measured in the doctor’s office are normal. Overall, they note, the effects of air temperature on blood pressure in elderly hypertensive patients are unknown.

The elderly subjects surveyed were more likely to experience a surge in morning blood pressure during cold weather when compared with moderate temperatures, but not during hot weather.

The study, published in the journal Hypertension, found air temperature to be an independent positive predictor of blood pressure changes at night only in older subjects who were treated with medications to control their high blood pressure. Older subjects treated for high blood pressure took more anti-hypertensive drugs each day during cold weather than during hot weather.

“These modifications may be potentially dangerous, because they may adversely affect the risk of cardiovascular events both during winter and summer, through different mechanisms,” the authors wrote.
They urged the use of 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring devices to assess treatment effects in elderly patients.