Achieving blood pressure targets for prolonged cardiovascular health: a historical perspective

The debate over the optimal blood pressure treatment target of less than 130/80 mmHg

OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study was to analyze the controversy regarding the optimal blood pressure (BP) target of <130/80 mmHg as proposed by the 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) across all age groups. Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, and chronic kidney disease (CKD), and its optimal control is associated with lessening or preventing these complications. A recent study has argued that this BP level is universally accepted as an optimal and safe BP level. However, this argument is not accepted by other investigators, arguing that higher BP levels are as effective and safe.

METHODS

In order to investigate the current status of this level of BP control, a Medline search of the English literature was conducted between 2017 and February 2022, and 25 pertinent papers were selected.

RESULTS

The analysis of data from these studies indicates that these BP are effective in lowering the BP and preventing cardiovascular disease, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease, and they are indeed universally accepted.

CONCLUSION

Based on the current evidence, the current proposed by the 2017 ACC/AHA treatment guidelines are effective in lowering the BP and decreasing its cardiovascular complications and should followed, till perhaps, new data come out to the contrary.

Age-Dependency of Cardiometabolic Risk and Protective Factors in Females Living in a Countryside Area of Switzerland

We investigated the effect of age on cardiometabolic risk and protective factors in females living in a countryside area of Switzerland. For this cross-sectional analysis, data from 268 female adults, who live in two neighboring countryside villages in Italian-speaking Switzerland were retained. 89 study participants were premenopausal, 82 climacteric and 97 postmenopausal. Television viewing time, short duration of sleep, overweight, blood pressure, levels of atherogenic lipids and glycated hemoglobin significantly increased with age. Walking time also significantly increased with age. Tobacco smoking was more common among premenopausal women. It is concluded that in these countryside villages climacteric and postmenopausal women generally have an unfavorable cardiometabolic risk profile. On the other side, low physical activity and smoking are, compared to premenopausal and climacteric women, less prevalent in postmenopausal women.

The clinical significance of isolated diastolic hypertension

The prevalence of isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH) has been increased in hypertensive subjects with the new 2017 ACC/AHA blood pressure treatment guidelines to 6.5% from 1.3% by the JNC-7 guidelines. However, its clinical significance as a cause of adverse cardiovascular (CV) events especially in older subjects has been debated by several investigators, who have demonstrated no adverse CV effects of untreated IDH, but not by others. It is also more common in the young subjects who are at low CV risk and quite rare in the older subjects, who are at increased CV risk. Treatment of IDH in the older subjects could increase the CV complications due to a J-curve effect and, in addition, could increase the incidence of stroke from further lowering the normal systolic blood pressure (SBP). Very low SBP and DBP cannot be sustained by the cerebral blood flow autoregulation and could lead to cerebral ischemia. In order to get a better perspective of the current status of the treatment of IDH, a review of the English language literature of the available studies was conducted and 12 papers with pertinent information were retrieved. The analysis of results from these studies suggests that IDH is associated with adverse CV events in younger persons and it should be treated. In contrast, the prevalence of IDH is low in older subjects and is not associated with adverse CV events in the majority of cases. Thus, its further lowering should be avoided to prevent further decrease in normal SBP and prevent the onset of adverse CV events. However, the decision to treat IDH in older subjects should be individualized.