JMA Journal

Figure 1. The patient enrollment flowchart.
Among 620 patients with heart failure who measured BP more than 4 times during the study period, 307 were excluded due to reduced LVEF, and an additional 25 were excluded based on other aforementioned criteria. As a result, 288 stable outpatients with HFpEF were included in the analysis. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on the median V2V-BPV value (7.3%).
BP: blood pressure; HFpEF: heart failure with preserved ejection fraction; LVEF: left ventricular ejection fraction; V2V-BPV: visit-to-visit BP variability.

Figure 2. The scatterplot of V2V-BPV and Mean systolic BP.
There was no significant association between V2V-BPV and Mean systolic BP (r = −0.009, p = 0.89). x indicates the CV of systolic BP, and y indicates mean systolic BP. The scatterplot was created using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA).
BP: blood pressure; CV: Coefficient of Variation; V2V-BPV: visit-to-visit BP variability.

Figure 3. Kaplan-Meier curve analysis for the primary endpoint of a composite of all-cause mortality and heart failure hospitalization
It showed that the high V2V-BPV group had a significantly higher event rate for the primary outcomes than the low V2V-BPV group (p = 0.001; Figure A). When stratified by the quartile of V2V-BPV, the curves indicated that higher V2V-BPV was associated with a higher event rate (p = 0.008, Figure B).
BP: blood pressure; V2V-BPV: visit-to-visit BP variability.

Figure 4. Kaplan-Meier curve analysis for the secondary endpoint of all-cause death
The high and low V2V-BPV groups divided by the median value of V2V-BPV showed significantly different event risks. The quartile groups of V2V-BPV revealed a numerically higher risk in the higher V2V-BPV group, although the difference was not statistically significant, possibly due to the small number of events.
BP: blood pressure; V2V-BPV: visit-to-visit BP variability.

Figure 5. Seasonal distribution of BP measurements.
BP measurements were evenly distributed in every season.
BP: blood pressure.