In a registry study of 63,910 adults, 24-hour ambulatory BP was a stronger predictor of mortality than BP measured in the clinic. Masked hypertension (normal BP in the clinic but elevated ambulatory ...BP) was associated with a greater risk of death than sustained hypertension.
Despite increased awareness, poor adherence to treatments for chronic diseases remains a global problem. Adherence issues are common in patients taking antihypertensive therapy and associated with ...increased risks of coronary and cerebrovascular events. Whilst there has been a gradual trend toward improved control of hypertension, the number of patients with blood pressure values above goal has remained constant. This has both personal and economic consequences. Medication adherence is a multifaceted issue and consists of three components: initiation, implementation, and persistence. A combination of methods is recommended to measure adherence, with electronic monitoring and drug measurement being the most accurate. Pill burden, resulting from free combinations of blood pressure lowering treatments, makes the daily routine of medication taking complex, which can be a barrier to optimal adherence. Single-pill fixed-dose combinations simplify the habit of medication taking and improve medication adherence. Re-packing of medication is also being utilized as a method of improving adherence. This paper presents the outcomes of discussions by a European group of experts on the current situation of medication adherence in hypertension.
Ambulatory blood pressure provides a more comprehensive assessment than clinic blood pressure, and has been reported to better predict health outcomes than clinic or home pressure. We aimed to ...examine associations of clinic and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in a large cohort of primary care patients referred for assessment of hypertension.
We did an observational cohort study using clinic and ambulatory blood pressure data obtained from March 1, 2004, to Dec 31, 2014, from the Spanish Ambulatory Blood Pressure Registry. This registry included patients from 223 primary care centres from the Spanish National Health System in all 17 regions of Spain. Mortality data (date and cause) were ascertained by a computerised search of the vital registry of the Spanish National Institute of Statistics. Complete data were available for age, sex, all blood pressure measures, and BMI. For each study participant, follow-up was from the date of their recruitment to the date of death or Dec 31, 2019, whichever occurred first. Cox models were used to estimate associations between usual clinic or ambulatory blood pressure and mortality, adjusted for confounders and additionally for alternative measures of blood pressure. For each measure of blood pressure, we created five groups (ie, fifths) defined by quintiles of that measure among those who subsequently died.
During a median follow-up of 9·7 years, 7174 (12·1%) of 59 124 patients died, including 2361 (4·0%) from cardiovascular causes. J-shaped associations were observed for several blood pressure measures. Among the top four baseline-defined fifths, 24-h systolic blood pressure was more strongly associated with all-cause death (hazard ratio HR 1·41 per 1 – SD increment 95% CI 1·36–1·47) than clinic systolic blood pressure (1·18 1·13–1·23). After adjustment for clinic blood pressure, 24-h blood pressure remained strongly associated with all-cause deaths (HR 1·43 95% CI 1·37–1·49), but the association between clinic blood pressure and all-cause death was attenuated when adjusted for 24-h blood pressure (1·04 1·00–1·09). Compared with the informativeness of clinic systolic blood pressure (100%), night-time systolic blood pressure was most informative about risk of all-cause death (591%) and cardiovascular death (604%). Relative to blood pressure within the normal range, elevated all-cause mortality risks were observed for masked hypertension (HR 1·24 95% CI 1·12–1·37) and sustained hypertension (1·24 1·15–1·32), but not white-coat hypertension, and elevated cardiovascular mortality risks were observed for masked hypertension (1·37 1·15–1·63) and sustained hypertension (1·38 1·22–1·55), but not white-coat hypertension.
Ambulatory blood pressure, particularly night-time blood pressure, was more informative about the risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular death than clinic blood pressure.
Spanish Society of Hypertension, Lacer Laboratories, UK Medical Research Council, Health Data Research UK, National Institute for Health and Care Research Biomedical Research Centres (Oxford and University College London Hospitals), and British Heart Foundation Centre for Research Excellence.
In the past two decades, techniques for the measurement of blood pressure outside the medical setting have unmasked highly prevalent situations. A significant proportion of patients with office blood ...pressure levels above the thresholds for diagnosing hypertension or above the limits where those being treated are considered to be adequately controlled actually show normal ambulatory blood pressure levels. These patients have white-coat hypertension if untreated or false resistance to antihypertensive therapy because of the white-coat effect if treated. However, some individuals with normal office blood pressure measurements show elevated ambulatory blood pressure levels, and thus have masked hypertension if untreated or masked uncontrolled hypertension if treated. When looking for white-coat hypertension in patients with elevated office blood pressure levels or when looking for masked hypertension in office-controlled patients, up to one in three patients in each scenario would have white-coat or masked hypertension. Although related clinical factors, such as age, gender and global cardiovascular risk, are associated with both conditions, their abilities to predict such a misclassification are very low. Thus, assessing individual blood pressure levels by means of an ambulatory technique, particularly ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, is now considered a priority in diagnosing hypertension and in evaluating hypertension control.
The main advantage of automated office (AO)BP in hypertension screening is that it eliminates white-coat effect seen in routine office practice, with readings similar to awake ambulatory (A)BP. ...Recent studies examining the possible equivalence between AOBP recorded with and without research staff present have reported attended systolic AOBP to be 5.8 mmHg higher. Moreover, attended automated SBP readings in 27 211 patients in clinical practice were 25 mmHg higher than awake ABP. These data are consistent with the presence of staff increasing AOBP. In research studies, all types of office BP measurement at target SBP less than 130 mmHg were generally lower than awake ABP, whereas, in clinical practice, attended automated office BP was slightly higher than awake ABP. However, AOBP may still be preferred, if target BP is to be similar to 24-h ABP. Further research is needed to determine the optimum technique for recording office BP at target.
Background
We aimed to estimate the prevalence of refractory hypertension (RfH) and to determine the clinical differences between these patients and resistant hypertensives (RH). Secondly, we ...assessed the prevalence of white‐coat RfH and clinical differences between true‐ and white‐coat RfH patients.
Methods and Results
The present analysis was conducted on the Spanish Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Registry database containing 70 997 treated hypertensive patients. RH and RfH were defined by the presence of elevated office blood pressure (≥140 and/or 90 mm Hg) in patients treated with at least 3 (RH) and 5 (RfH) antihypertensive drugs. White‐coat RfH was defined by RfH with normal (<130/80 mm Hg) 24‐hour blood pressure. A total of 11.972 (16.9%) patients fulfilled the standard criteria of RH, and 955 (1.4%) were considered as having RfH. Compared with RH patients, those with RfH were younger, more frequently male, and after adjusting for age and sex, had increased prevalence of target organ damage, and previous cardiovascular disease. The prevalence of white coat RfH was lower than white‐coat RH (26.7% versus 37.1%, P<0.001). White‐coat RfH, in comparison with those with true RfH, showed a lower prevalence of both left ventricular hypertrophy (22% versus 29.7%; P=0.018) and microalbuminuria (28.3% versus 42.9%; P=0.047).
Conclusions
The prevalence of RfH was low and these patients had a greater cardiovascular risk profile compared with RH. One out of 4 patients with RfH have normal 24‐hour blood pressure and less target organ damage, thus indicating the important role of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in guiding antihypertensive therapy in difficult‐to‐treat patients.
OBJECTIVE:The aim of the Advanced Approach to Arterial Stiffness study was to compare arterial stiffness measured simultaneously with two different methods in different age groups of middle-aged and ...older adults with or without metabolic syndrome (MetS). The specific effects of the different MetS components on arterial stiffness were also studied.
METHODS:This prospective, multicentre, international study included 2224 patients aged 40 years and older, 1664 with and 560 without MetS. Patients were enrolled in 32 centres from 18 European countries affiliated to the International Society of Vascular Health & Aging. Arterial stiffness was evaluated using the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) and the carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (CF-PWV) in four prespecified age groups40–49, 50–59, 60–74, 75–90 years. In this report, we present the baseline data of this study.
RESULTS:Both CF-PWV and CAVI increased with age, with a higher correlation coefficient for CAVI (comparison of coefficients P < 0.001). Age-adjusted and sex-adjusted values of CF-PWV and CAVI were weakly intercorrelated (r = 0.06, P < 0.001). Age-adjusted and sex-adjusted values for CF-PWV but not CAVI were higher in presence of MetS (CF-PWV9.57 ± 0.06 vs. 8.65 ± 0.10, P < 0.001; CAVI8.34 ± 0.03 vs. 8.29 ± 0.04, P = 0.40; mean ± SEM; MetS vs. no MetS). The absence of an overall effect of MetS on CAVI was related to the heterogeneous effects of the components of MetS on this parameterCAVI was positively associated with the high glycaemia and high blood pressure components, whereas lacked significant associations with the HDL and triglycerides components while exhibiting a negative association with the overweight component. In contrast, all five MetS components showed positive associations with CF-PWV.
CONCLUSION:This large European multicentre study reveals a differential impact of MetS and age on CAVI and CF-PWV and suggests that age may have a more pronounced effect on CAVI, whereas MetS increases CF-PWV but not CAVI. This important finding may be due to heterogeneous effects of MetS components on CAVI. The clinical significance of these original results will be assessed during the longitudinal phase of the study.
There is scarce evidence of the role of clinic and ambulatory BP indices, as well as blood pressure phenotypes in the prognosis of stroke survivors. We aimed to evaluate the association between ...ambulatory BP indices and mortality in patients with a previous stroke. Our study was an observational cohort study from individuals included in the Spanish Ambulatory Blood Pressure Registry from March 2004 to December 2014. The Cox model was used to estimate associations between usual clinic and ambulatory BP and mortality, adjusted for confounders and additionally for alternative measures of BP. Two thousand one hundred and eighty-three patients with a previous stroke were included. During a median of 9.2 years, 632 (28.9%) patients died: 236 (10.8%) from cardiovascular causes. In the confounder-adjusted model, clinic systolic BP was not associated with the risk of all-cause or cardiovascular mortality. In contrast, systolic BP indices obtained through ABPM (24 h, day and night) were all associated with all-cause and cardiovascular death. In the simultaneous adjustment of daytime and night-time systolic BP, only night-time systolic BP remained significantly associated with all-cause and cardiovascular death: HR 1.35 (95% CI 01.21-1.51) and 1.44 (1.20-1.72), respectively. For diastolic BP, only night-time BP was associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: HR 1.32 (1.18-1.48) and 1.57 (1.31-1.88), respectively. According to the circadian pattern, a riser pattern was associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: HR 1.49 (1.18-1.87) and 1.70 (1.14-2.52), respectively. In conclusion, in patients who have suffered a stroke, night-time BP is the BP estimate most closely associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.There is scarce evidence of the role of clinic and ambulatory BP indices, as well as blood pressure phenotypes in the prognosis of stroke survivors. We aimed to evaluate the association between ambulatory BP indices and mortality in patients with a previous stroke. Our study was an observational cohort study from individuals included in the Spanish Ambulatory Blood Pressure Registry from March 2004 to December 2014. The Cox model was used to estimate associations between usual clinic and ambulatory BP and mortality, adjusted for confounders and additionally for alternative measures of BP. Two thousand one hundred and eighty-three patients with a previous stroke were included. During a median of 9.2 years, 632 (28.9%) patients died: 236 (10.8%) from cardiovascular causes. In the confounder-adjusted model, clinic systolic BP was not associated with the risk of all-cause or cardiovascular mortality. In contrast, systolic BP indices obtained through ABPM (24 h, day and night) were all associated with all-cause and cardiovascular death. In the simultaneous adjustment of daytime and night-time systolic BP, only night-time systolic BP remained significantly associated with all-cause and cardiovascular death: HR 1.35 (95% CI 01.21-1.51) and 1.44 (1.20-1.72), respectively. For diastolic BP, only night-time BP was associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: HR 1.32 (1.18-1.48) and 1.57 (1.31-1.88), respectively. According to the circadian pattern, a riser pattern was associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: HR 1.49 (1.18-1.87) and 1.70 (1.14-2.52), respectively. In conclusion, in patients who have suffered a stroke, night-time BP is the BP estimate most closely associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
Ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM) is now recommended in all patients suspected of having hypertension. However, in practice, the mean daytime pressures are often used to make diagnostic ...and therapeutic decisions, and the information from abnormal patterns of blood pressure behavior is often overlooked. This paper presents daytime patterns (eg, white coat hypertension and siesta dipping), nocturnal patterns (eg, dipping, non‐dipping, reverse dipping, and the morning surge), and discusses ambulatory hypotension, and abnormal patterns and indices of related hemodynamic parameters (eg, heart rate, pulse pressure, and blood pressure variability).
OBJECTIVES:Resting heart rate (HR) taken in the office has been shown to be associated with cardiovascular outcomes in the general population, hypertension and heart failure. It is unknown whether ...24-h oscillographic pulse rate measurement as an approximation of HR derived from ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) associates with cardiovascular outcomes in hypertensive patients.
METHODS:We evaluated ABPM recordings from 56 901 patients with complete 3373 421 HR measures entering the final analysis from the Spanish Blood Pressure Monitoring Registry for a median follow-up time of 5.1 years. We explored the association of office HR, mean 24-h HR, mean day HR, mean night HR as well as day–night HR differences, morning mean HR, morning HR surge and night peak HR to all-cause death, cardiovascular death and noncardiovascular death. Data were analyzed by Cox regression analysis, analysis of variance and chi-square test.
RESULTS:The Spanish ABPM Registry recorded data in 223 primary care centers in Spain from 2004 until 31 December 2014 at the end of recruitment. Office HR was 3.5 bpm higher than mean 24-h HR, office mean HR versus mean night was 10.4 bpm higher and mean day versus mean night HR 9.3 bpm higher, while there were no relevant difference between office and mean day HR. Office mean, 24-h day and night HR more than 90 bpm were associated with an increased risk for all-cause and noncardiovascular death, whereas for cardiovascular death only mean night HR was predictive. The strongest association to all-cause death was observed with mean night HR hazard ratio 3.80 (2.87–5.03), mean 24-h HR 2.85 (2.30–3.54) and mean day HR 2.22 (1.83–2.70). Day-night dipping of more than 8 bpm was associated with a 20% lesser risk on all-cause, cardiovascular and noncardiovascular death. Results were robust after adjusting for relevant risk indicators.
CONCLUSION:HR parameters derived from ABPM provide important information, in particular association with death by mean night HR, mean 24-h HR and reduced day–night HR dipping less than 8 bpm superior to office HR.
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