title: [Role of pulse pressure, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure in the prediction of cardiovascular risk. Cohort study].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analize the role of pulse pressure (PP), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), in the prediction of cardiovascular risk.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Salud La Marina, SAP Esquerra de Barcelona, Institut Català de la Salut, Barcelona, España. jbaenad@meditex.es
authors.forename: José Miguel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Baena-Díez
authors.forename: Noemí
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bermúdez-Chillida
authors.forename: Manel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: García-Lareo
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Olivia Byram
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vidal-Solsona
authors.forename: Mónica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vilató-García
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gómez-Fernández
authors.forename: Javier Ernesto
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Vásquez-Lazo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011674:Pulse; D018570:Risk Assessment