The study looked at data from the Framingham Heart Study, Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, and Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study and used sex-pooled propensity analyses to figure out danger of particular cardiovascular results gradually (hazard ratios) for self-identified females compared to guys. The authors found that the danger of cardiovascular morbidity started at a lower systolic blood pressure in ladies compared to males and went straight to suggesting that high blood pressure need to be acted on at a lower threshold for females..
Graphical representations of these data portray a clear, climbing line between blood pressure and risk of cardiovascular results, with an extremely close visual similarity to the information released in this recent short examination. Looking at those figures, its easy to see why so many individuals have actually gotten here at the what-would-appear-to-be logical conclusion that there is a linear connection in between blood pressure and cardiovascular risk– the lower the blood pressure the much better.
For starters, there is actually more data than is depicted in those oft-cited figures, representing a version of selective data reporting. If you follow that completely direct line in towards the y axis (i.e., including lower blood pressure measurements), it turns a corner and ends up being a “J” or a “U” shaped curve, showing that at some limit, cardiovascular-specific threat increases with lower high blood pressure. So does the risk of death.
Never mind actual trial-based information suggesting that overtreating blood pressure can result in electrolyte irregularities, falls, kidney injury, to name a few unfavorable occasions. Oh, and also death..
Absence of randomization leaves room for the really real possibility that there are known or unidentified confounders that could play more of a causal function in cardiovascular danger than blood pressure itself. Perhaps people with lower blood pressure have something else in typical that makes them also less likely to have a heart attack and die. That possibility may be at least as most likely as the idea that high blood pressure is the direct link to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
So, leaping straight from observational information to the assertion that maybe standards require to be changed to show these outcomes skips what is possibly the most important step: the randomized controlled trial. These information about sex differences in blood pressure-associated cardiovascular threat do make a convincing argument– that a trial to examine any causal link is necessitated..
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The association of blood pressure with cardiovascular danger goes method back. Visual representations of these information illustrate a clear, climbing line in between blood pressure and danger of cardiovascular results, with an extremely close graphical similarity to the information released in this current quick examination. Looking at those figures, its simple to see why so many people have arrived at the what-would-appear-to-be sensible conclusion that there is a linear connection in between blood pressure and cardiovascular risk– the lower the blood pressure the better. Lack of randomization leaves space for the really real possibility that there are unknown or known confounders that might play more of a causal role in cardiovascular threat than blood pressure itself.