[A prescription register incorporated into computerized medical records for patients with hypertension: a new instrument to evaluate medication adherence]. / Registro del historial farmacoterapéutico de la historia clínica informatizada en pacientes con hipertensión arterial: un nuevo instrumento para valorar la adherencia terapéutica.

OBJECTIVE: To study the validity of a prescription register (PR) incorporated into computerized medical records (CMR) compared with the Morisky-Green test in patients with high blood pressure using anti-hypertensive medication. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Primary Care. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 252 patients with hypertension using drug therapy with no changes in drugs or dosage were randomly selected. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Descriptive variables, blood pressure, proportion of drug therapy collected from pharmacies according to the PR over 12 months compared with drug therapy prescribed in CMR (poor medication adherence [MA] if <80%), and Morisky-Green test. Validity of the PR was analysed using the Kappa index to compare PR with the Morisky-Green test (reference) and blood pressure levels. RESULTS: Mean age was 68 years, 50% were women, and 77% completed the study. Poor MA was 51.3% according to the PR (95% CI 44.3%-58.3%) and 15.4% (95% CI; 10.3%-20.4%) when using the Morisky-Green test. The Kappa index was -0.068. Patients with poor MA according to the PR had higher levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure (4.3 and 2.9 mmHg, respectively, P<0.05). No differences in blood pressure were observed in patients with poor MA if the Morisky-Green test was used (0.1 and 1 mmHg, respectively, P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Poor MA according to the PR is high and is associated with poorer control of blood pressure; the Morisky-Green test does not pick up on these differences. These results suggest that the PR could be useful for evaluating MA and that the Morisky-Green test underestimates poor MA.

[Role of pulse pressure, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure in the prediction of cardiovascular risk. Cohort study]. / Papel de la presión de pulso, presión arterial sistólica y presión arterial diastólica en la predicción del riesgo cardiovascular. Estudio de cohortes.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To analize the role of pulse pressure (PP), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), in the prediction of cardiovascular risk. PATIENTS AND METHOD: A prospective cohort study carried out in 2 primary care center, including 932 patients aged between 35-84 years old, without cardiovascular events, selected by simple random sampling, and with an 8 year follow-up. PP, SBP, and DBP were categorized in tertiles, comparing the upper with the 2 lowers. First cardiovascular event, whether fatal or not, such as coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral arterial disease was recorded as a composite variable. Results were studied according to Cox models, adjusting for age, sex, smoking, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, and diabetes mellitus. We studied the correlation between PP with SBP, DBP, and cardiovascular risk factors. RESULTS: We registered 85 cardiovascular events: 43 cases of coronary heart disease, 27 cerebrovascular disease, and 17 peripheral arterial disease. The adjusted hazard ratios for composite variable were: upper PP tertile (>/= 59 mmHg) = 1.3 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8-2.1); upper SBP tertile (>/= 140 mmHg) = 1.5 (95% CI, 1.0-2.5); upper DBP tertile (>/= 84 mmHg) = 1.1 (95% CI, 0.7-1.8). Results were similar for specific cardiovascular events. PP was correlated with SBP (r = 0.825; p < 0.001), age (r = 0.422; p < 0.001), diabetes mellitus (r = 0.242; p < 0.001), and smoking (r = -0.158; p = 0.01), with adjusted hazard ratio for these variables of 1.0 (95% CI, 0.6-1.9). CONCLUSIONS: PP is an arterial pressure component very correlated with SBP and other factors, but is not a better cardiovascular risk predictor than SBP.