Research Highlights

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  • Clinical medicine

Published online: 29 July 2009 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2009.152

Hypertension: Earthquake puts blood pressure at stake

Felix Cheung

Introduction

© (2009) istockphoto.com/Rui Pestana

Survivors of natural disasters are particularly vulnerable to emotional distress, which directly affects the cardiovascular system. Several studies have reported an increased incidence of sudden cardiac deaths following earthquakes, but the underlying mechanism behind this has been unclear. Now, Zhi Zeng and co-workers at Sichuan University in Chengdu¹ have evidence to suggest that elevations in blood pressure may contribute to post-earthquake sudden deaths.

The 2008 Sichuan earthquake, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale, occurred at 14:28 Beijing time on May 12 in the Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province, China. The researchers collected blood pressure and heart rate data for 11 hypertensive patients who were coincidentally undergoing 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring on the day of the earthquake in a hospital in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province.

They found that the mean blood pressure in patients increased from 125.8/72.1 mmHg (millimetres of mercury) prior to the earthquake (at 14:00) to 150.5/98.0 mmHg after the event (at 15:00) — the blood pressure of a healthy human is around 120/80 mmHg. The mean heart rate also jumped from 75.1 beats per minute to 94.6.

The mean heart rate returned to normal levels by 16:00. The blood pressure, however, remained high for many hours before declining back to the pre-earthquake levels at 22:00. The findings show that earthquakes have a dramatic impact on blood pressure and heart rate in hypertensive patients, thereby increasing their risk of sudden death.

The authors of this work are from:
Department of Cardiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China; Chinese Cochrane Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China; Department of Geriatrics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China; Department of Public Management, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Reference

1. Chen, Y. et al. Acute cardiovascular effects of the Wenchuan earthquake: ambulatory blood pressure monitoring of hypertensive patients. Hypertens. Res. doi:10.1038/hr.2009.98 (2009). | Article