Normalizing Blood Pressure May Be Dangerous For Older People

2023 Author: Abraham Higgins | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-07-31 03:44

Normalizing Blood Pressure May Be Dangerous for Older People

Blood pressure is below 140/90 mm Hg. associated with an increased risk of death in people over 80 years of age, as well as in those who have had a previous myocardial infarction or stroke. Thus, lowering blood pressure to the target level is far from always justified.

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Blood pressure (BP) below 140/90 mm Hg. is associated with an increased risk of death in people over 80 years of age, as well as in those who have had a previous myocardial infarction or stroke, researchers from the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin have found. The research results are published in the European Heart Journal.

Approximately 70-80% of people in their 70s have high blood pressure, a condition that in the long term leads to cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction and stroke. According to European recommendations, in people over 65, the target blood pressure should be below 140/90 mm Hg. Professional associations in the United States have gone even further by recommending target values less than 130/80 mmHg. for all patients over 65 years of age.

The same target values apply to people over 80 years of age, but additional factors should be taken into account - the comorbidities of individual patients. There is an ongoing scientific debate about which targets give the best results in elderly patients with high blood pressure.

Epidemiological data from this study were collected as part of the Berlin Initiative Study led by Prof. Dr. Elke Schäffner. More than 1,600 men and women treated for high blood pressure were studied, aged 70 or older at the time of study (2009).

Every two years, participants were asked about their health and medications, blood pressure and kidney function were measured, and blood and urine samples were analyzed. After 6 years, the data were statistically analyzed to determine the possibility and degree of influence of blood pressure on mortality. Other potentially important factors were taken into account - gender, BMI, smoking status, alcohol consumption, diabetes, and the number of antihypertensive (BP-lowering) drugs.

Scientists have found that the use of antihypertensive drugs to achieve target values below 140/90 mm Hg. does not always have a protective effect. And for targets below 130/80 mm Hg. the results were even more pronounced.

“Our results clearly show that in these patient populations, antihypertensive treatment must be tailored to the needs of the individual. We must move away from the general approach of applying the recommendations of professional associations to all patient groups,”explained the first author of the study, Dr. Antonios Douros.

The researchers found that among 80-year-olds with BP levels below 140/90 mm Hg. mortality was 40% higher than in those with BP above this level. Similar observations were also made for participants with a history of myocardial infarction or stroke. It is noteworthy that among patients whose blood pressure was below 140/90 mm Hg, mortality was 61% higher than in patients whose blood pressure remained above this level, despite antihypertensive treatment.

“As a next step, we want to explore which patient groups benefit from antihypertensive treatment,” said Professor Elke Scheffner.