Current Hypertension Reports

, Volume 13, Issue 3, pp 177–186 | Cite as

Does Blood Pressure Variability Modulate Cardiovascular Risk?

Article
First Online:

Abstract

Exactly how hypertension causes end organ damage and vascular events is poorly understood. Yet the concept that underlying “usual” blood pressure (BP) accounts for all BP-related risk of vascular events and for the benefits of BP-lowering drugs has come to underpin clinical guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. This article reviews evidence that variability in BP also predicts risk of stroke and other vascular events independently of mean BP and evidence that drug-class effects on variability in BP explain differences in the effectiveness of BP-lowering drugs in preventing stroke.

Keywords

Variability Systolic blood pressure Cardiovascular risk Stroke 
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Notes

Disclosure

Conflicts of Interest: P. Rothwell: Honoraria for serving on advisory boards for Servier, Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim; Fees for participation in Steering Committee of PERFORM trial (Servier), ARRIVE trial (Bayer); IMPACT trial (Biotronic); Consulting fees for participation in Data Monitoring Committee of ROCKET-AF trial (J&J Pharma/Bayer); Consulting fees for OSCARE initiative (Bristol-Myers Squibb); Grant to look at severity of stroke in patients with AF in the OXVASC study (Boehringer Ingelheim).

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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.University Department of Clinical NeurologyJohn Radcliffe HospitalOxfordUK

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