Systolic BP Best Predictor of Cardiovascular Risk

Systolic blood pressure is generally the most important blood pressure measurement in predicting cardiovascular risk in men, a new study finds.

Researchers at the Veterans Administration Healthcare System in Boston (Massachusetts, USA) conducted a prospective study of more than 53,000 participants in the Physicians' Health Study cohort. Over a median follow-up of 5.7 years, there were 459 cardiovascular deaths. For each 10 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure, the relative risk ratio rose from 1.46 in the youngest group, 39-49 years, to 1.13 in the oldest group, 70-84 years (in relative risk, the lower the ratio, the higher the hazard). For diastolic blood pressure, the corresponding ratios were 1.25 and 1.07.

The study also found that compared with systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, and mean arterial pressure were not consistent predictors across age ranges. Combining systolic blood pressure with other parameters did not prove to be of additional help. The results were published in the January 2006 issue of the American Journal of Hypertension.

"Our findings emphasize the clinical importance of using systolic blood pressure to determine who is at risk for dying from cardiovascular disease,” said lead investigator Dr. Thomas S. Bowman.
The Physicians' Health Study (Boston, MA, USA) was begun in the fall of 1982 to test the benefits and risks of aspirin and beta-carotene in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Twenty-three years and more than 200 published research reports later, it is still going strong. A second randomized trial, the Physicians Health Study-II, is now testing the balance of benefits and risks of three other widely used, but as yet unproven, supplements for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and age-related eye disease: vitamin E, vitamin C, and a multivitamin.



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