Publication:

The measurement of blood pressure in winter season and its co-relation with blood pressure after cold exposure in summer season: a cross-sectional study in Gauhati medical college and hospital, Guwahati, Assam, India

Background The aim of the study was to correlate the change in blood pressure in winter season to that in summer season after exposure to localized cold stimuli.

Methods Basal blood pressure in healthy males of 20-40 years was recorded during winter season by conventional method using sphygmomanometer and stethoscope. During summer, the same subjects were taken and their baseline blood pressure was recorded. Thereafter their feet were immersed in cold water at 12 degree centigrade and blood pressure was recorded at 5 minutes and 10 minutes interval. The systolic and diastolic BP during winter, summer (baseline), and after 5 minutes and 10 minutes of cold exposure was compared. P value <0.001 as obtained by using student t test (student graph pad) was taken as significantResults: It was observed that systolic and diastolic BP showed a significant increase (p<0.001) in response to the cold stimuli. The increase was comparable to the rise in BP during winter.

Conclusions Present study has revealed a higher systolic and diastolic BP in winter and in summer after cold stimuli than baseline summer BP; So we conclude that subjects with borderline hypertension who are more likely to develop higher BP in winter season are also likely to develop high BP after cold stimuli in summer season.