Comparison of treatment benefit and outcome in women versus men with chronic heart failure (from the Valsartan Heart Failure Trial).

The comparison of treatment effect and co-morbidity between the genders in the Valsartan Heart Failure Trial showed equal benefit of treatment in men and women. Co-morbidities, such as diabetes and coronary artery disease, increased nonfatal cardiac morbidity more in women than in men.

Comparison of patients with acute coronary syndrome with and without systemic hypertension.

The role of systemic hypertension in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) has not been well studied. We studied consecutive subjects admitted to the University of Michigan Health System (Ann Arbor, Michigan) with symptoms of ACS. Data were collected using a standardized form. This observational study is currently ongoing; we collected data from May 1999 to December 2000 for 979 subjects, 890 of whom also had 6-month follow-up data. Hypertensives represented 64.4% (n = 630) of the total population. In general, hypertensive patients were older than normotensives (66.3 vs 59.9 years, p <0.0001), more often women (38.7% vs 26.9%, p = 0.0002), and had more comorbidities, such as previous myocardial infarction (47.9% vs 33.8%, p <0.0001), congestive heart failure (25.7% vs 12.0%, p <0.0001), and diabetes (36.9% vs 17.8%, p <0.0001). At admission, hypertensives had higher systolic blood pressure. Hypertensives had fewer electrocardiographic abnormalities indicating ischemic changes (67.9% vs 76.3%, p = 0.01) and had fewer incident of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (70.7% vs 76.1%, p = 0.07) than normotensives. There was consistency over different levels of admission systolic blood pressure. Hypertensives received more oral cardiovascular drugs, and had undergone more invasive procedures. The lower rate of AMI in hypertensives seemed to be related to the higher frequency of a history of percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass grafting. However, at 6-month follow-up, age- and gender-adjusted odds ratios for adverse events were equivalent in hypertensives and normotensives, suggesting no continuing differential treatment benefit for hypertensives in the months after the initial ACS episode.

Pulse pressure responses to psychological tasks improve the prediction of left ventricular mass: 10 years of follow-up.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the role of casual blood pressure measurements and blood pressure responses to psychological tasks in the prediction of future left ventricular mass index (LVMI), and to determine the importance of different components of blood pressure, and the predictive value of an individual's personal characteristics and antihypertensive medication on future LVMI. METHODS: At baseline, blood pressure was recorded by casual measurements; during tests it was recorded by intra-arterial monitoring. The participants were healthy, untreated 35-45-year old men. Echocardiography data both at baseline and after 10 years of follow-up were available from 65 individuals, of whom 49 (75%) were not taking antihypertensive medication at follow-up. Those not taking antihypertensive medication were included in the prediction of LVMI (g/m2). RESULTS: Baseline LVMI correlated significantly with future LVMI only among the 49 unmedicated individuals (r = 0.52, P < 0.0001). The predictive value of baseline LVMI on future LVMI among them (adjusted coefficient of determination = 0.26) was not improved by the inclusion of casual blood pressure. In contrast, blood pressure responses to the psychological tasks improved the prediction of future LVMI by 4-13%. Pulse pressure was the blood pressure variable that entered the final prediction models; the correlations with future LVMI were best for pulse pressure response to habituation task (r = 0.43, P < 0.05) and to relaxation (r = 0.37, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the longest prospective follow-up to show that blood pressure responses to psychological tasks improve the prediction of LVMI compared with casual blood pressure measurements. The pulse pressure, which reflects the properties of the arterial wall, is the most significant blood pressure variable in predicting future LVMI.