Effect of Blood Pressure on Cardiovascular Diseases at 10-Year Follow-Up

The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) recently published a Guideline for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults. However, the data in other ethnic groups are not well known. We evaluated the prevalence and associated cardiovascular prognosis of Korean subjects with newly reclassified hypertension based on the 2017ACC/AHA guideline. We analyzed data from the Korean Health and Genome Study (n = 10,038). Supine blood pressure (BP) was measured thrice following a standardized protocol and averaged. There was a significant linear relation between BP profiles and cardiovascular disease (CVD)/mortality. Hazard ratio for CVD increased above a systolic BP of 120mm Hg. Systolic BP ≥130mm Hg was significantly associated with increased risk of CVD, coronary heart disease, stroke, CVD death, and total deaths. There was a similar significant linear relation with diastolic BP categories between CVD risk and death. BP is associated with an increased risk of CVD or all-cause mortalities. Moreover, the new BP categories of the 2017ACC/AHA guideline could be applicable for predicting CVD and death in Korean population.