Association of cardiovascular events with central systolic blood pressure: A systemic review and meta‐analysis

Central blood pressure confers cardiovascular risk prediction ability, but whether the association between central systolic blood pressure (cSBP) and cardiovascular endpoints is independent of peripheral systolic blood pressure (pSBP) remains controversial. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to investigate the associations between cSBP and cardiovascular endpoints in models including and excluding pSBP, respectively. Observational studies assessing the risk of composite cardiovascular endpoints with baseline cSBP were searched in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library to May 31, 2022. Risk of bias was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale, and random-effects models were used to pool estimates. Finally, 48 200 participants from 19 studies with a mean age of 59.0 ± 6.9 years were included. Per 10 mmHg increase of cSBP was associated with higher risk of composite cardiovascular outcomes (risk ratio [RR]: 1.14 [95%CI 1.08-1.19]) and cardiovascular death (RR: 1.18 [95%CI 1.08-1.30]), and the associations still existed after adjusting for pSBP (RR: 1.13 [95%CI 1.05-1.21] for composite cardiovascular endpoints; RR: 1.25 [95%CI 1.09-1.43] for cardiovascular death). In pSBP-unadjusted studies, increased cSBP was also associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality and stroke, but not in the pSBP-adjusted studies. Both cSBP and pSBP were similarly significantly associated with composite cardiovascular endpoints in models containing them separately and simultaneously. cSBP was significantly associated with cardiovascular events, independently of pSBP. Central or peripheral SBP could supplement cardiovascular risk assessment besides each other.