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Inflammation, blood pressure and cardiovascular disease: heading east

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 27, page 71 (2013)Cite this article

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Elevated blood pressure is one of the most important cardiovascular risk factors worldwide, and the number of individuals suffering from arterial hypertension is expected to increase by approximately 60% until 2025, making prevention and treatment of arterial hypertension an essential public health priority.1, 2 As individuals with higher than optimal blood pressure levels (sometimes called prehypertension3) have a substantial risk of developing hypertension or overt cardiovascular disease over time,4, 5, 6 this important group of patients has attracted a lot of research interest, in order to better understand the underlying risk factors and mechanisms.

Over the last 15 years, many studies have established that inflammation is an important risk factor for a wide variety of cardiovascular events, including myocardial infarction, stroke, congestive heart failure or atrial fibrillation.7, 8, 9 This increased risk was independent of traditional risk factors in all of these studies, despite the fact that elevated levels of inflammatory biomarkers are also associated with an increased risk of hypertension, obesity and diabetes.10, 11

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  1. Department of Medicine, University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland. E-mail: conend@uhbs.ch,

    D Conen

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Conen, D. Inflammation, blood pressure and cardiovascular disease: heading east. J Hum Hypertens 27, 71 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2012.7

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