"This is an innovative study, but it was small and the findings need to be duplicated," National Kidney Foundation (NKF) spokesman Leslie Spry tells WebMD.

As many as 80% of people with chronic kidney disease have abnormal sleep-related blood pressure patterns. By comparison, studies suggest that the phenomenon occurs in about 5% to 10% of whites and 20% of blacks.

Atlanta cardiologist Gina Lundberg says that she has long recommended morning and evening dosing to her patients taking blood pressure drugs.

She says the average patient takes two to three drugs to control blood pressure, but many take five.

"Patients like to take them all at one time for convenience, but they tend to feel better if they spread them out," she says. "And this study showed an actual cardiovascular benefit to doing this."

But she adds that the findings do not mean that all heart patients or even all kidney patients with heart disease would benefit from taking some of their blood pressure medications at night.

Twenty-four-hour blood pressure monitoring is the only way to identify nighttime non-dippers, and Lundberg points out that very few patients are ever monitored this way.

She directs the St. Joseph's Hospital Heart Center for Women and is a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association.

"This study looked at a very specific group of patients, so we can't say that all patients should do this," she says. "But this is intriguing evidence that spreading pills out may have real cardiovascular benefits."

Source-Medindia
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