Blood pressure level and incidence of myocardial infarction among patients treated for hypertension.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined the relationship between achieved blood pressure and risk of myocardial infarction among patients treated for hypertension.


METHODS
Blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors were assessed among 718 myocardial infarction case patients and 2136 matched controls.


RESULTS
Blood pressure level was directly related to risk of myocardial infarction. Patients with treated hypertension who had mild elevations in blood pressure accounted for a larger share of the excess myocardial infarction incidence than those who had higher blood pressure readings.


CONCLUSIONS
Achieving normotensive levels in treated hypertensive patients with uncontrolled blood pressure might prevent more than 15% of myocardial infarctions in the treated hypertensive population.
Kaplan
R C
RC
Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. rkaplan@u.washington.edu
Psaty
B M
BM
Heckbert
S R
SR
Smith
N L
NL
Lemaitre
R N
RN
D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D018672:Community Health Planning; D003971:Diastole; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D015994:Incidence; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000209:etiology*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013599:Systole