title: Central aortic blood pressure assessment and cardiovascular risk.
abstract: Peripheral brachial blood pressure measurements may not provide an accurate representation of degenerative changes that characterize cardiovascular disease. Evidence is mounting that antihypertensive treatment strategies with apparently similar effects on brachial blood pressure may have different effects on central aortic pressure, which in turn may lead to overestimation or underestimation of therapeutic efficacy. The relative importance of central and brachial blood pressure for predicting cardiovascular risk and clinical outcomes has been examined in several clinical studies. These studies have reported that a large proportion of individuals considered to have normal blood pressure values based on brachial systolic pressures had high-normal blood pressure based on central aortic pressure measurements. As additional evidence suggesting the superiority of central aortic pressure over peripheral assessments becomes more abundant, measurement of central aortic pressure may be the next important advancement in the management of hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Dallas Nephrology Associates, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75235, USA. ramv@dneph.com
authors.forename: C Venkata S
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Ram
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001011:Aorta / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000502:physiology; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome