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 on the Treatment of Isolated Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly: First Interim Report
Syst-Eur is a multicenter placebo-controlled outcome trial design ed by the European Working Party on High Blood Pressure in the Elderly 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 mm Hg with a diastolic blood pressure less than 95 mm Hg . The present paper is 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 + /- SD ) , sitting blood pressure ( 178 + /- 12 mm Hg systolic ; 85 + /- 7 mm Hg diastolic ) , percentage of men ( 34 % ) , and percentage of patients with cardiovascular complications ( 29 % ) . After r and omization blood pressure fell more ( p less than 0.001 ) in patients on active treatment than in those in the placebo group ( 19 + /- 20 mm Hg systolic ; 6 + /- 10 mm Hg diastolic vs. 7 + /- 19 and 1 + /- 10 mm Hg for 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 two treatment groups can be achieved and maintained . New centers 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 .