Introduction: Wave reflections are important markers and prognosticators of cardiovascular risk, and have been implicated in the pathogenesis of systolic hypertension. Caffeine increases acutely wave reflections. Furthermore, chronic coffee consumption is associated with increased wave reflections in normotensive subjects. In the present study we aimed to assess the association between chronic coffee consumption and wave reflections in hypertensive patients.

Methods: We examined 228 never treated hypertensives (age 50.7±11.9 years, 143 males) under any medication. Frequency of coffee consumption was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. According to the distribution of coffee consumption, we categorized daily coffee consumption as: (1) none, (2) low (<200 ml/day), (3) moderate (200–450ml/day) and (4) high (>450ml/day). Augmentation Index (AIx) was measured non-invasively as an index of wave reflections, using SphygmoCor^®. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to evaluate the association between AIx and coffee intake after adjusting for several potential confounders.

Results: AIx was found to be increased with increasing degree of daily coffee consumption when adjusted for gender, age, height, smoking status, heart rate, mean pressure, HDL cholesterol and hsCRP (p < 0.02). Systolic, diastolic, pulse and mean pressures were not different among the 4 groups of daily coffee consumption.

Conclusions: Increased daily coffee consumption is associated with enhanced wave reflections in hypertensive patients. This finding may have important implications for the management of these patients.