Blood Pressure Treatment Can Lower CV Risk

If doctors administered blood pressure-lowering treatment based on overall absolute risk, rather than blood pressure (BP) level alone, the number of adverse cardiovascular events would significantly decrease, according to a recent study.

“What this research shows is that it’s not just a patient’s BP that matters when deciding who to treat,” said Bruce Neal, PhD, a lead researcher of the study and professor at The George Institute at the University of Sydney. 
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
New Blood Pressure Measurement Technologies
Blood Pressure: What's Optimal? What's Not?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Using this new approach you can treat less people but prevent more strokes and heart attacks. It’s a win for patients and should be a win for the government’s budget too,” he said.

The study included data from 67,475 participants in 11 trials. Participants were randomly assigned to receive blood pressure-lowering medication or a placebo. Subsequently, they were divided into 4 categories for a baseline 5-year cardiovascular risk.

Researchers calculated risk using a risk prediction equation for variables such as age, diabetes, and smoking status.

The study showed that over a median of 4 years, 8% of participants experienced a cardiovascular event. Investigators found that blood pressure-lowering treatment decreased adverse cardiovascular risk by 18%, 15%, 13%, and 15% in each of the 4 higher-risk groups.

"These results support the use of predicted baseline cardiovascular disease risk equations to inform blood pressure-lowering treatment decisions," researchers concluded.

The complete study is published in the August issue of Lancet.

-Michelle Canales

References:

The Blood Pressure-Lowering Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration. Blood pressure-lowering treatment based on cardiovascular risk: a meta-analysis of individual patient data. Lancet. 2014 August [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61212-5.

The George Institute. Big Changes needed for treating blood pressure, new study says. August 8, 2014. www.georgeinstitute.org/media-releases/big-changes-needed-for-treating-blood-pressure-new-study-says. Accessed August 15, 2014.