Effect of Environmental Particulate Matter on Pulse Pressure in a Chinese Community-based Population

Introduction: Pulse pressure(PP) is an indicator of atherosclerosis and associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. PM2.5 showed a close relationship with CVD in previous studies. However, the effect of PM2.5on PP is not well established.The difference of effect on pulse pressure in different exposure concentration of PM2.5especially in extremely high concentration is unclear. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that the PP will increase with the increasing exposure of daily PM2.5, while the effect will be more pronounced at extremely high concentrations. Methods: A total of 3823 Chinese subjects from an atherosclerosis cohort in Beijing, China from December 2011 to April 2012 were included in analysis.Subjects received systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements at both baseline and 2.3 years later follow-up. PP was the difference value calculated by the two blood pressure factors above. Data from Gucheng air pollution monitoring station was used to estimate daily PM2.5 in 2014. We established a lin...