The reduction in cardiovascular mortality and morbidity was primarily due to a reduction in cerebrovascular mortality and morbidity .
AUTHORS ' CONCLUSIONS Treating healthy adults 60 years or older with moderate to severe systolic and /or diastolic hypertension with antihypertensive drug therapy reduced all-cause mortality , cardiovascular mortality and morbidity , cerebrovascular mortality and morbidity , and coronary heart disease mortality and morbidity .
Most evidence of benefit pertains to a primary prevention population using a thiazide as first-line treatment
BACKGROUND This is the second substantive up date of this review .
It was originally published in 1998 and was previously up date d in 2009 .
Elevated blood pressure ( known as ' hypertension ' ) increases with age - most rapidly over age 60 .
Systolic hypertension is more strongly associated with cardiovascular disease than is diastolic hypertension , and it occurs more commonly in older people .
It is important to know the benefits and harms of antihypertensive treatment for hypertension in this age group , as well as separately for people 60 to 79 years old and people 80 years or older .
[SYST-EUR: a multicenter trial of treatment of systolic hypertension in aged subjects. An initial report].
Syst-Eur is a multicentre placebo-controlled outcome trial , design ed by the European Working Party on High Blood Pressure in the Elderly ( EWPHE ) , to investigate the effect of antihypertensive treatment on the incidence of stroke in elderly patients with isolated systolic hypertension ( ISH ) . Eligible patients must be at least 60 years old and have a systolic blood pressure averaging 160 - 219 mmHg with a diastolic blood pressure less than 95 mmHg . The present paper in an interim report on the first 316 patients r and omized into this trial . The placebo ( N = 170 ) and active treatment ( N = 146 ) groups were similar at r and omization with respect to age ( 73 + /- 8 years ; mean + /- st and ard deviation ) , sitting blood pressure ( 178 + /- 12/85 + /- 7 mmHg ) , percentage men ( 34 % ) and percentage of patients with cardiovascular complications ( 29 % ) . After r and omization blood pressure fell more ( p < 0.001 ) on active treatment than in the placebo group ( 19 + /- 20/6 + /- 10 mmHg versus 7 + /- 19/1 + /- 10 mmHg for the sitting blood pressure ) . This first interim report on the Syst-Eur trial demonstrates that a multinational trial in elderly patients with ISH is feasible and that a significant blood pressure difference between the 2 treatment groups can be achieved and maintained . New centres are being recruited in order to r and omize a total of 3,000 patients
The reduction in cardiovascular mortality and morbidity was primarily due to a reduction in cerebrovascular mortality and morbidity .
AUTHORS ' CONCLUSIONS Treating healthy adults 60 years or older with moderate to severe systolic and /or diastolic hypertension with antihypertensive drug therapy reduced all-cause mortality , cardiovascular mortality and morbidity , cerebrovascular mortality and morbidity , and coronary heart disease mortality and morbidity .
Most evidence of benefit pertains to a primary prevention population using a thiazide as first-line treatment
BACKGROUND This is the second substantive up date of this review .
It was originally published in 1998 and was previously up date d in 2009 .
Elevated blood pressure ( known as ' hypertension ' ) increases with age - most rapidly over age 60 .
Systolic hypertension is more strongly associated with cardiovascular disease than is diastolic hypertension , and it occurs more commonly in older people .
It is important to know the benefits and harms of antihypertensive treatment for hypertension in this age group , as well as separately for people 60 to 79 years old and people 80 years or older .