Blood pressure trajectories in early adulthood and myocardial structure and function in later life

AIMS: This study sought to investigate the association between blood pressure (BP) trajectories from early to middle adulthood and echocardiographic indices of structure and function in middle age. METHODS AND RESULTS: This prospective cohort study included 4717 black and white adults aged 18–30 years at baseline (1985–86) who were followed over 30 years in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Trajectories of systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), and pulse pressure (PP) from the Year 0 examination to Year 30 examination were identified using latent mixture modelling. Echocardiographic indices of myocardial structure, systolic function, and diastolic function were assessed at the Year 30 examination. Five distinct SBP trajectory groups were identified: low‐stable [1110 participants (23.5%)], moderate‐stable [2188 (46.4%)], high‐stable [850 (18.0%)], moderate‐increasing [416 (8.8%)], and high‐increasing [153 (3.2%)]. After adjustment for clinical variables, a significant decreasing trend was observed from the high‐increasing and moderate‐increasing groups through to the low‐stable group for left ventricular (LV) mass index [mean (SE): high‐increasing, 112.3 (3.4); moderate‐increasing, 99.3 (2.6); high‐stable, 88.9 (2.5); moderate‐stable, 86.1 (2.3); low‐stable, 82.1 (2.4), P trend < 0.01], as well as LV end‐diastolic dimension, left atrial volume index, and E/e′, while an increasing trend was apparent for LV longitudinal strain, E/A ratio, and average e′ velocities. Results were generally consistent for trajectories of DBP and PP. CONCLUSIONS: Higher BP trajectories from early to middle adulthood were associated with worse indices of myocardial modelling and LV systolic and diastolic function at middle age.