Caf H, et al. - Researchers examined patients (mean age: 53.8±10.7 years, male/female: 101/196) with essential hypertension to determine the link between morning blood pressure surge (MBPS) and orthostatic hypotension (OH) in hypertensive patients under treatment. OH was diagnosed using tilt table testing, and three categories of OH were identified: initial OH (0 to 15 seconds), classical OH (15 seconds to 3 minutes), and delayed OH (3 to 30 minutes). Patient groups were classified as either those with OH or without OH. They calculated MBPS as the difference between the average blood pressure (BP) during the 2 hours after awakening and the lowest night-time BP. Findings highlighted OH as a major problem in hypertensive patients. Also, they observed that the occurrence of OH was independently predicted by increased MBPS, which could be detected easily by 24-hour ambulatory BP monitor. Occurrence of OH was independently correlated with MBPS, thiazide diuretic, and α-blocker treatments.