Does more intensive blood pressure lowering improve outcomes in hypertensive patients with different risk profiles?
Descriptive subanalyses of the HOT study suggest intensive blood pressure lowering is reasonable for hypertensive patients with diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and high global cardiovascular risk.
Although subanalyses have only a descriptive value, it appears reasonable to recommend intensive antihypertensive treatment to hypertensives with diabetes, IHD and high global cardiovascular risk. In smokers, treatment intensification should be associated with the greatest efforts to induce smoking cessation.
Zanchetti et al. (Tue,) studied this question.