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Prognostic Value of Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure in Treated Hypertensive Men: Clarification

Prognostic Value of Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure in Treated Hypertensive Men: Clarification We thank Dr Deedwania for the interest he expressed in his editorial1 regarding our article entitled "Prognostic Value of Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure in Treated Hypertensive Men" that appeared in March 11, 2002, issue of the ARCHIVES.2 We would like to clarify some of the points he mentioned concerning the limitations of our study. First, data concerning the presence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the study population at the time of the initial evaluation are presented in the fourth paragraph of the "Methods" section. Upon study entry, 112 patients (2.4% of the entire study population) had concurrent CVD. We decided not to conduct separate analyses in high-risk patients due to the small numbers of these patients; stratifying these patients into smaller subgroups according to the systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels could lead to erroneous conclusions. Additional studies should be conducted in larger populations of treated hypertensive diabetic or coronary patients in order to clarify this point. Second, we would also like to clarify that in our study we included primarily middle-aged (mean ± SD age, 52 ±11 years) treated hypertensive men, meaning that the large majority of these subjects were aged between 40 and 65 years. In this group, the roles of systolic and diastoloic blood pressure were not influenced by age. However, these results cannot eliminate the possibility that in older patients (eg, >65 years) pulse pressure becomes the most important determinant of CVD risk. References 1. Deedwania PC The changing face of hypertension: is systolic blood pressure the final answer [editorial]? Arch Intern Med. 2002;162506- 508Google ScholarCrossref 2. Benetos AThomas FBean KGautier SSmulyan HGuize L Prognostic value of systolic and diastolic blood pressure in treated hypertensive men. Arch Intern Med. 2002;162577- 581Google ScholarCrossref http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Archives of Internal Medicine American Medical Association

Prognostic Value of Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure in Treated Hypertensive Men: Clarification

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References (6)

Publisher
American Medical Association
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.
ISSN
0003-9926
eISSN
1538-3679
DOI
10.1001/archinte.163.1.121
Publisher site
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Abstract

We thank Dr Deedwania for the interest he expressed in his editorial1 regarding our article entitled "Prognostic Value of Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure in Treated Hypertensive Men" that appeared in March 11, 2002, issue of the ARCHIVES.2 We would like to clarify some of the points he mentioned concerning the limitations of our study. First, data concerning the presence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the study population at the time of the initial evaluation are presented in the fourth paragraph of the "Methods" section. Upon study entry, 112 patients (2.4% of the entire study population) had concurrent CVD. We decided not to conduct separate analyses in high-risk patients due to the small numbers of these patients; stratifying these patients into smaller subgroups according to the systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels could lead to erroneous conclusions. Additional studies should be conducted in larger populations of treated hypertensive diabetic or coronary patients in order to clarify this point. Second, we would also like to clarify that in our study we included primarily middle-aged (mean ± SD age, 52 ±11 years) treated hypertensive men, meaning that the large majority of these subjects were aged between 40 and 65 years. In this group, the roles of systolic and diastoloic blood pressure were not influenced by age. However, these results cannot eliminate the possibility that in older patients (eg, >65 years) pulse pressure becomes the most important determinant of CVD risk. References 1. Deedwania PC The changing face of hypertension: is systolic blood pressure the final answer [editorial]? Arch Intern Med. 2002;162506- 508Google ScholarCrossref 2. Benetos AThomas FBean KGautier SSmulyan HGuize L Prognostic value of systolic and diastolic blood pressure in treated hypertensive men. Arch Intern Med. 2002;162577- 581Google ScholarCrossref

Journal

Archives of Internal Medicine – American Medical Association

Published: Jan 13, 2003

Keywords: hypertension,systole,diastolic blood pressure

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