ASSOCIATION OF PULSE PRESSURE AND DOUBLE PRODUCT WITH CARDIOVASCULAR AND OVERALL MORTALITY IN LURIC

Abstract

Objective: Systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) as well as mean arterial pressure (MAP) are already known as important predictors respectively risk factors for cardiovascular mortality. Pulse pressure (PP) is considered as an easily available marker of vascular stiffness and the double product (DP; SBP x heart rate (HR)) as a marker of cardiac workload. Therefore, we extended our analysis of outcome parameters by use of PP and DP. Design and method: We retrospectively analysed data from the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health (LURIC) study. Results: Long-term data from 3316 patients undergoing coronary angiography showed that by increasing SBP by 1mmHg the risk of both cardiovascular and overall mortality rose by 0.9%. However, there was no significant relationship between DBP and mortality. A higher PP of 1mmHg resulted in a higher cardiovascular mortality risk of 1.6% and an overall mortality risk of 1.7%. Increasing DP by 1 standard deviation was associated with a 26.1% higher risk of cardiovascular mortality and 25.7% higher risk of overall mortality. Conclusions: We provide evidence that not only the classic standard blood pressure parameters SPB and MAP predict cardiovascular mortality, but also that PP and DP are powerful predictors of cardiovascular mortality risk in a cardiovascular risk population.