Abstract
Introduction: The effect of intensive versus standard blood pressure (BP) lowering on the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) is uncertain. Hypothesis: Intensive BP lowering is associated with a lower risk of AF among patients with hypertension. Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and CENTRAL for trials published between inception and June 5, 2020 for randomized controlled trials evaluating the effect of intensive versus standard (target systolic BP < 140 mmHg) BP lowering on incident AF. We assessed heterogeneity using the I 2 statistic then used fixed-effects meta-analysis models to report pooled treatment effects and 95% confidence intervals. We also tested for publication bias by three funnel plot-based methods. The quality of each study was assessed with the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Results: We assessed 16 candidate studies for eligibility from 2,312 published articles, but only three randomized clinical trials were eligible for inclusion and included a combined 12,219 participants with hypertension: Cardio-Sis (Studio Italiano Sugli Effetti Cardiovascolari del Controllo della Pressione Arteriosa Sistolica), ACCORD-BP (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes Blood Pressure trial), and SPRINT (Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial). The target systolic BP in the intensive BP arm was <120 mmHg for participants in SPRINT and ACCORD-BP, but <130 mmHg for participants in Cardio-Sis. Participants randomized to intensive BP lowering had significantly lower risk of incident AF compared with those randomized tostandard BP lowering (AF incidence 2.2% vs. 3.0%, respectively; pooled hazard ratio (95% confidence interval ): 0.74 (0.59 - 0.93)). Conclusions: Intensive BP lowering is associated with a significantly lower risk of incident AF in patients with hypertension. These findings add to the current evidence supporting the benefits of intensive BP control.
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