Does the relation of blood pressure indices (DBP, SBP, PP) to coronary heart disease risk change with aging?
The predictive value of different blood pressure components for coronary heart disease risk changes significantly with age, shifting from diastolic blood pressure in younger patients to pulse pressure in older patients.
With increasing age, there was a gradual shift from DBP to SBP and then to PP as predictors of CHD risk. In patients <50 years of age, DBP was the strongest predictor. Age 50 to 59 years was a transition period when all 3 BP indexes were comparable predictors, and from 60 years of age on, DBP was negatively related to CHD risk so that PP became superior to SBP.
Franklin et al. (Tue,) studied this question.