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Clinical Trial
. 2023 Aug;80(8):1739-1748.
doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.123.21454. Epub 2023 Jun 23.

Middle-Aged and Older Patients With Left Ventricular Hypertrophy: Higher Mortality With Drug Treated Systolic Blood Pressure Below 130 mm Hg

Sondre Heimark  1   2   3 , Maria H Mehlum  4 , Giuseppe Mancia  5 , Camilla L Søraas  6   3 , Knut Liestøl  7 , Kristian Wachtell  8 , Anne C Larstorp  1   9   3 , Morten Rostrup  10   11   3 , Julian E Mariampillai  12 , Sverre E Kjeldsen  1   13   14   3 , Stevo Julius  13 , Michael A Weber  15
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Middle-Aged and Older Patients With Left Ventricular Hypertrophy: Higher Mortality With Drug Treated Systolic Blood Pressure Below 130 mm Hg

Sondre Heimark et al. Hypertension. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Approximately 40% of people with hypertension have left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) detected by ECG or echocardiography. Because patients with LVH have poor myocardial microcirculation, they may be too sensitive to lowering systolic blood pressure (SBP) too much due to a lack of myocardial perfusion pressure. We aimed to investigate whether the average achieved SBP <130 mm Hg may cause harm in patients with LVH in the Valsartan Antihypertensive Long-Term Use Evaluation trial (VALUE).

Methods: Of the 15 245 VALUE participants, we identified 13 803 patients without cardiovascular events during the first 6 months after randomization. Of these, 2458 patients had electrocardiographic LVH (ECG-LVH). Cox analyses adjusted for age, gender, and baseline variables compared cardiac and all-cause mortality and other prespecified end points for patients who achieved average SBP 130 to 139 mm Hg (No-LVH group n=4863; ECG-LVH group n=929) and <130 mm Hg (No-LVH group n=2107; ECG-LVH group n=305). Reference groups were patients who achieved average SBP ≥140 mm Hg following the first excluded 6 months (No-LVH group n=4375; ECG-LVH group n=1224).

Results: The No-LVH group achieving average SBP <130 mm Hg had a significantly lower incidence of several cardiovascular end points. The ECG-LVH group achieving average SBP <130 mm Hg had higher cardiac mortality (hazard ratio, 1.98 [95% CIs, 1.06-3.70]; P=0.032) and all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 1.74 [95% CIs, 1.17-2.60]; P=0.007), and SBP <130 mm Hg was not associated with a reduction in any end point.

Conclusions: Our findings may be seen as a signal that caution is warranted when treating middle-aged and older patients with electrocardiographic or echocardiographic LVH to SBP <130 mm Hg.

Keywords: all-cause mortality; antihypertensive treatment; blood pressure target; cardiac mortality; hypertension; left ventricular hypertrophy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures Dr Mancia reports honoraria from Astra Zeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, Medtronic, Menarini Group, Merck, Novartis, Recordati, Sandoz, Sanofi, and Servier outside the present work. Dr Kjeldsen reports honoraria from Getz, Merck GBaA, Vector-Intas, and Zydus outside the present work. Dr Weber reports honoraria from Ablative Solutions, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, ReCor, and Urovant outside the present work. The other authors report no conflicts.

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