Single Versus Combined Blood Pressure Components and Risk for Cardiovascular Disease

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Abstract
Background— The utility of single versus combined blood pressure (BP) components in predicting cardiovascular disease (CVD) events is not established. We compared systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) versus pulse pressure (PP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) combined and each of these 4 BP components alone in predicting CVD events. Methods and Results— In participants in the original (n=4760) and offspring (n=4897) Framingham Heart Study who were free of CVD events and BP-lowering therapy, 1439 CVD events occurred over serial 4-year intervals from 1952 to 2001. In pooled logistic regression with the use of BP categories, combining SBP with DBP and PP with MAP improved model fit compared with individual BP components (P<0.05 to P<0.0001). Significant interactions were noted between SBP and DBP (P=0.02) and between PP and MAP (P=0.01) in their respective multivariable models. Models with continuous variables for SBP+DBP and PP+MAP proved identical in predicting CVD events (Akaike Information Criteria=1...