Home Cardiology Visit-to-Visit SBP Variability Not Linked to Major Cardiac Events

Visit-to-Visit SBP Variability Not Linked to Major Cardiac Events

Findings in hypertensive patients with coronary artery disease

TUESDAY, June 23, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Inadequate blood pressure (BP) control, but not visit-to-visit variability of systolic BP, is associated with major adverse cardiac events (MACE) among patients with hypertension and coronary artery disease (CAD), according to a study published in the July 15 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology.

Hiroyuki Arashi, M.D., from the Heart Institute of Japan in Tokyo, and colleagues examined the prognostic significance of visit-to-visit variability in systolic BP on subsequent MACE in patients with hypertension and CAD. A total of 2,049 patients were enrolled, and 1,734 patients had multiple follow-up visits (at least three) until their final follow-up.

The researchers found that the primary outcome of MACE occurred in 18.3 percent of patients during a median follow-up of 4.2 years. There was no correlation between visit-to-visit variability of systolic BP and the incidence of MACE. However, based on the mean systolic BP, the highest quartile for BP during follow-up correlated with subsequent MACE.

“In conclusion, in hypertensive patients with CAD, inadequate BP control is a strong predictor of subsequent MACE, whereas visit-to-visit variability of systolic BP is not,” the authors write.

Abstract
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