Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Hypertension

Benefits of strict blood-pressure lowering in hypertension

A new meta-analysis by Ettehad and colleagues, which included >613,000 patients with hypertension from randomized, controlled trials, clearly demonstrates that antihypertensive medication reduces cardiovascular events and death in all patients, including those with systolic blood pressure <130 mmHg and regardless of concomitant diseases. The risks of stroke and heart failure were particularly reduced.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Precision medicine for the management of hypertension.

References

  1. Ettehad, D. et al. Blood pressure lowering for prevention of cardiovascular disease and death: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01225-8 (2015).

  2. SPRINT Research Group. A randomized trial of intensive versus standard blood-pressure control. N. Engl. J. Med. 373, 2103–2116 (2015).

  3. ACCORD Study Group. Effects of intensive blood-pressure control in type 2 diabetes mellitus. N. Engl. J. Med. 362, 1575–1585 (2010).

  4. Perkovic, V. & Rodgers, A. Redefining blood-pressure targets — SPRINT starts the marathon. N. Engl. J. Med. 373, 2175–2178 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Kario, K. Essential Manual of 24 Hour Blood Pressure Management From Morning to Nocturnal Hypertension (Wiley–Blackwell, 2015).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Collins, F. S. & Varmus, H. A new initiative on precision medicine. N. Engl. J. Med. 372, 793–795 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Kario, K. et al. Home blood pressure and cardiovascular outcomes in patients during antihypertensive therapy: primary results of HONEST, a large-scale prospective, real-world observational study. Hypertension 64, 989–996 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Webb, A. J., Fischer, U., Mehta, Z. & Rothwell, P. M. Effects of antihypertensive-drug class on interindividual variation in blood pressure and risk of stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet 375, 906–915 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. McMurray, J. J. et al. Angiotensin-neprilysin inhibition versus enalapril in heart failure. N. Engl. J. Med. 371, 993–1004 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Zinman, B. et al. Empagliflozin, cardiovascular outcomes, and mortality in type 2 diabetes. N. Engl. J. Med. 373, 2117–2128 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kazuomi Kario.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kario, K. Benefits of strict blood-pressure lowering in hypertension. Nat Rev Cardiol 13, 125–126 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2016.13

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2016.13

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing