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Achieving recommended BP control is important but no more than addressing other risk factors as well

Comment by Savvas Hadjiphilippou, EAPC Young Community Representative

Preventive Cardiology
Risk Factors and Prevention


Blood pressure (BP) is an established risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. An intensive regimen of BP control may however lead to increased risk and in this study the authors assess the cardiovascular impact of intensive lowering of diastolic or systolic blood pressure when compared to the overall management of risk factor burden in patients with stable coronary artery disease.

In this study, patients with an increasing number of risk factors for cardiovascular disease were associated with a greater hazard ratio for the composite end point of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, or non-fatal stroke. Unsurprisingly, poorly controlled blood pressure was associated with a higher cardiovascular risk. Unlike LDL-C control however, the mantra “the lower the better” is not necessarily true of BP control which seems to follow a J-curve phenomenon. 

In my mind however, what is important to appreciate from this study is the recognition that >60% of patients had at least one other poorly controlled risk factor. When addressing the cardiovascular risk profile for patients, this paper highlights the importance of seeing patients as a whole and targeting as many risk factors as possible rather than the low-hanging fruit as is often the case. 

References

Savvas Hadjiphilippou commented on this article:

Optimal or standard control of systolic and diastolic blood pressure across risk factor categories in patients with chronic coronary syndromes

Emmanuelle Vidal-Petiot,  Yedid Elbez,  Jules Mesnier,  Gregory Ducrocq,  Ian Ford, Michal Tendera,  Roberto Ferrari,  Jean-Claude Tardif,  Kim M Fox, Philippe Gabriel Steg on behalf of the CLARIFY Investigators 
European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, zwad004, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad004
published: 07 January 2023.

Notes to editor

Note: The content of this article reflects the personal opinion of the author/s and is not necessarily the official position of the European Society of Cardiology.