Hypertension

Highlights of the March issue No abstract available

Cardiovascular, renal and liver protection with novel antidiabetic agents beyond blood glucose lowering in type 2 diabetes: consensus article from the European Society of Hypertension Working Group on Obesity, Diabetes and the High-risk Patient The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) has increased over the past few decades. T2D has a strong genetic propensity that becomes overt when a patient is exposed to a typical Western lifestyle, gain weight and becomes obese, whereas weight loss protects from the development of T2D. Except of lifestyle modifications, the choice of the appropriate treatment is essential in the management of patients with T2D and appears critical for the obese population with T2D. The new pharmacological approach for the treatment of T2D, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists, seems to be effective not only in the management of T2D but also for weight loss, reduction of blood pressure and improvement of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide 1 analogues reduced cardiovascular risk, prevented cardiovascular disease and mortality, thereby playing an important role in the treatment of obese patients with hypertension and T2D.

Weight gain and blood pressure Objective: Although the causality of the obesity--hypertension association is established, the potential for prevention is not. We hypothesized that weight gain between early adulthood and mid-life is associated with higher mid-life blood pressure. Methods: We investigated the hypothesis using a large contemporaneous population-based mid-life cohort of men and women aged 50–64 years. Recalled body weight at age 20 years was self-reported, and mid-life body weight and office blood pressures were measured in accordance with a detailed protocol. Results: On average, men had gained 14.9 (95% CI 14.6–15.2) kg of weight, and women 14.6 (95% CI 14.4–14.9) kg, between age 20 years and the mid-life examination, corresponding to 0.40 (95% CI 0.39–0.41) kg/year for men and women. Both weight at age 20 years and weight at the mid-life examination were associated with mid-life blood pressures. On average, a 10 kg weight increase between age 20 years and mid-life was associated with 2.2 (95% CI 0.9–3.5) mmHg higher systolic and 1.7 (95% CI 0.9–2.5) mmHg higher diastolic mid-life blood pressure in men, and 3.2 (2.5–4.0) mmHg higher systolic and 2.4 (1.9–2.9) mmHg higher diastolic mid-life blood pressure in women. Mid-life weight was more closely associated than weight at age 20 years with mid-life blood pressure. For a given mid-life weight, blood pressure was higher in persons with higher weight gain from age 20 years. Conclusion: In sum, weight gain between early adulthood and mid-life was associated with higher mid-life blood pressure. The magnitude of the association indicates a potentially great public health impact of strategies to prevent weight gain throughout adulthood.

STRIDE BP: an international initiative for accurate blood pressure measurement The diagnosis and management of hypertension is dependent upon accurate blood pressure (BP) measurement. Despite intense efforts over several decades by the international medical community worldwide, the use of inaccurate devices has resulted in the misdiagnosis and poor management of hypertension, which remains a largely unresolved public health problem. STRIDE BP (www.stridebp.org) is an international nonprofit organization the mission of which is to improve the accuracy of BP measurement and the diagnosis of hypertension. STRIDE BP comprises a group of 24 recognized experts in BP monitoring from across the world and operates in affiliation with the European Society of Hypertension, the International Society of Hypertension, and the World Hypertension League. In the first stage, STRIDE BP has reviewed 419 validations of 260 devices and approved 69% of them, providing recommendations on accurate devices for office, ambulatory and home BP measurement in adults, children and during pregnancy. At the next stage, STRIDE BP intends to develop programs for on-line training and tools for use in clinical practice leading to improved measurement of BP and better diagnosis of hypertension world-wide.

How common is isolated nocturnal hypertension? No abstract available

Time to rethink the management of underlying sleep disturbances in nondippers? No abstract available

Reduction of blood pressure variability: an additional protective cardiovascular effect of vasodilating beta-blockers? No abstract available

Do really statins reduce blood pressure? No abstract available

Serum uric acid and fatal myocardial infarction: detection of prognostic cut-off values: The URRAH (Uric Acid Right for Heart Health) study Objective: The Working Group on Uric Acid and Cardiovascular Risk of the Italian Society of Hypertension conceived and designed an ad-hoc study aimed at searching for prognostic cut-off values of serum uric acid (SUA) in predicting fatal myocardial infaction (MI) in women and men. Methods: The URic acid Right for heArt Health study is a nationwide, multicentre, observational cohort study involving data on individuals aged 18–95 years recruited on a regional community basis from all the territory of Italy under the patronage of the Italian Society of Hypertension with a mean follow-up period of 122.3 ± 66.9 months. Results: A total of 23 467 individuals were included in the analysis. Cut-off values of SUA able to discriminate MI status were identified by mean of receiver operating characteristic curves in the whole database (>5.70 mg/dl), in women (>5.26 mg/dl) and in men (>5.49 mg/dl). Multivariate Cox regression analyses adjusted for confounders (age, arterial hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, smoking habit, ethanol intake, BMI, haematocrit, LDL cholesterol and use of diuretics) identified an independent association between SUA and fatal MI in the whole database (hazard ratio 1.381, 95% confidence intervals, 1.096–1.758, P = 0.006) and in women (hazard ratio 1.514, confidence intervals 1.105–2.075, P < 0.01), but not in men. Conclusion: The results of the current study confirm that SUA is an independent risk factor for fatal MI after adjusting for potential confounding variables, and demonstrate that a prognostic cut-off value associated to fatal MI can be identified at least in women.

Visit-to-visit blood pressure variation and outcomes in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: findings from the Eplerenone in Patients with Systolic Heart Failure and Mild Symptoms trial Background: Visit-to-visit office blood pressure (BP) variability (BPV) has been associated with morbidity and mortality outcomes in several cardiovascular conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between BPV and outcomes in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction and the effect of eplerenone on BPV. Methods and results: We evaluated the associations between BPV, calculated as SBP coefficient of variation (SBP-CoV = SD/mean × 100%), and the primary composite endpoint of cardiovascular mortality or heart failure hospitalization (HFH), and its components, in 2549 patients from the Eplerenone in Patients with Systolic Heart Failure and Mild Symptoms trial. Lower SBP-CoV was independently associated with a higher risk of all the studied outcomes, while higher as well as lower SBP-CoV were associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular death. After a median follow-up period of 21 months the risk of the composite outcome of cardiovascular death or HFH was almost double in the lower SBP-CoV tertile as compared with the intermediate tertile [adjusted hazard ratio: 2.01, 95% confidence interval (1.62–2.51), P < 0.001]. The relationship between SBP-CoV and outcomes was not modified by eplerenone (P value for interaction = 0.48). An interaction was detected between mean SBP and SBP-CoV for the primary outcome (P = 0.048) and for HFH (P = 0.018). The effect modification was slight, but lower SBP-CoV was associated with worse outcomes in patients with both low and high SBP, while this interaction was less clear for patients with SBP in the ‘normal’ range. Conclusion: In our patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction and mild symptoms, both a lower and higher SBP-CoV were associated with worse outcomes. SBP-CoV did not modify the benefit of eplerenone. Further studies are warranted to clarify the role of BPV in heart failure. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00232180.