Is systolic pressure key in determining left ventricular mass?

We studied 2,545 untreated hypertensive subjects with echocardiography and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to determine whether the relationship between pulse pressure and left ventricular mass is direct or mediated by other components. Left ventricular mass increased with all pressure components, and all correlations were closer with ambulatory than with office measurements. When 24-hour measures of systolic and pulse pressure values were forced into the same multivariate model, 24-hour pulse pressure lost statistical significance. Thus, systolic pressure accounts for the association between pulse pressure and left ventricular mass.