The study looked at pulse pressure, which is the difference between blood pressure's two key numbers: systolic blood pressure (top number) and diastolic blood pressure (bottom number). For example, a blood pressure 120/80 has a pulse pressure of 40. Pulse pressure has previously been shown to be a powerful predictors of heart attacks, heart failure and death in patients who are not on dialysis.
The Duke University researchers examined pulse pressure in dialysis patients because this population shows an unusual relationship between traditional blood pressure measurements and death.
"In the general population, people who have higher blood pressure have a greater risk of dying," said Dr. Preston Klassen, lead author of the study and nephrologist at Duke University Medical Center. "In dialysis patients, that relationship at first glance appears to be reversed. Dialysis patients with higher blood pressures seem to live longer than dialysis patients with lower blood pressures. We decided to examine pulse pressures in dialysis patients to see what the relationship was between pulse pressure and death."
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