Abstract:Aim To investigate the correlation between inter-arm systolic blood pressure difference (sIAD), inter-ankle systolic blood pressure difference (sIAND) and subclinical target organ damage (including left ventricular hypertrophy, arteriosclerosis, proteinuria, and composite target organ damage). Methods This study enrolled 2 069 participants from the 2023 follow-up of the Hanzhong Pediatric Hypertension Research cohort. sIAD and sIAND were measured using a non-invasive automatic waveform analyzer. Participants were divided into normal and abnormal sIAND groups based on sIAND values of <10 mmHg or ≥10 mmHg. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the relationships between sIAD, sIAND and subclinical target organ damage. Restricted cubic spline models were employed to evaluate the dose-response relationship between sIAD, sIAND and composite target organ damage. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to compare the diagnostic performance of different criteria for sIAD and sIAND in identifying subclinical target organ damage. Results The participants had an average age of 48.28 years, with 46.7% being female. There were 1 466 individuals with normal sIAND and 603 with abnormal sIAND. After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, sIAD was significantly associated with an increased risk of arterial stiffness (OR=1.2,5%CI:1.00~1.04). However, sIAD was not significantly associated with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), proteinuria, or composite target organ damage. Compared with the normal sIAND group, the abnormal sIAND group had significantly higher risks of LVH (OR=1.2,5%CI:1.18~2.50), arterial stiffness (OR=1.5,5%CI:1.33~2.06), proteinuria (OR=1.8,5%CI:1.36~2.33), and composite target organ damage (OR=1.6,5%CI:1.43~2.15). Restricted cubic spline models indicated a significant linear association between sIAND and subclinical target organ damage (P for linearity <0.001), whereas no significant linear or nonlinear relationships were observed for sIAD. Furthermore, in terms of diagnostic efficacy for composite target organ damage, the combined use of sIAD and sIAND showed comparable efficacy to using sIAND alone, whereas using sIAD alone was significantly less effective. Conclusion sIAND, but not sIAD, is significantly associated with subclinical target organ damage, suggesting that sIAND may serve as a predictive indicator for subclinical target organ damage.