Does more intense blood pressure lowering reduce stroke, coronary events, and cardiovascular mortality in patients with hypertension?
More intensive blood pressure lowering (SBP < 130 mmHg) reduces major cardiovascular events and mortality, though the absolute benefit is smaller in patients with lower baseline risk.
Updating of previous meta-analyses indicates that more vs. less intense BP lowering can reduce not only stroke and coronary events, but also cardiovascular mortality. Including data from recent RCTs also shows that all major outcomes can be reduced by lowering SBP a few mmHg below vs. above 130 mmHg, but absolute risk reduction becomes smaller, suggesting patients at lower initial SBP were at a lower level of cardiovascular risk.
Thomopoulos et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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