Impact of Age and Target-Organ Damage on Prognostic Value of 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure

Markers of target-organ damage and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (BP) measurement improve cardiovascular risk stratification. The prevalence of target-organ damage and raised BP increases with aging. The study aim was to evaluate the impact of age and target-organ damage on the prognostic value of ambulatory BP. Markers of target-organ damage and ambulatory BP were measured in 1408 healthy people aged 41 or 51 (middle-aged group), and 61 or 71 (older group) years. The primary outcome was cardiovascular events after 16 years of follow-up, with data obtained from national registries. The prognostic value of BP was evaluated with Cox regression models, adjusted for traditional risk factors and target-organ damage, including left ventricular mass, pulse wave velocity, carotid plaques, and urine albumin/creatinine ratio. A total of 323 events were observed. In comparison with traditional risk factors, adding systolic BP and presence of target-organ damage improved risk stratification by increasing concordance index from 0.711 to 0.728 (P=0.01). In middle-aged subjects with target-organ damage, increment in pulse pressure (hazard ratio, 1.70; 95% confidence interval, 1.31-2.21; P<0.01) and increment in average real variability (hazard ratio, 1.29; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-1.59; P=0.02) were associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease compared with subjects without target-organ damage: hazard ratio, 1.04 (95% confidence interval, 0.74-1.46; P=0.81); P for interaction, 0.02; and hazard ratio, 0.89 (95% confidence interval, 0.69-1.14; P=0.36); P for interaction, 0.01. Target-organ damage may be a marker of individual susceptibility to the harmful effects of pulse pressure and BP variability on the cardiovascular system in middle-aged individuals.