Pulse pressure (PP) is associated with cardiovascular events and the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) to end stage kidney disease (ESKD). While PP is known to widen with age, it is less clear what other clinical factors affect PP and whether the risks associated with wide PP are the same across all ages. We used Cox proportional hazards models to investigate the association of PP with development of 1) atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) events (congestive heart failure hospitalization, myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral artery disease) or death and 2) 50% reduction in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) or ESKD in the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) Study. In sensitivity analyses, we evaluated the association of time-updated PP with these outcomes, accounting for potential time-updated confounders using inverse probability of treatment weighting. We evaluated for effect modification by age (divided into tertiles), apparent treatment-resistant hypertension (HTN), baseline diabetes mellitus (DM) status, baseline CKD stage and baseline cardiovascular disease (CVD). Among 5,621 participants with CKD followed for ~5.4 years, mean PP was 57±19 mmHg, 1,396 (25%) had an ASCVD event, 1,186 (21%) died and 1,783 (32%) participants experienced the composite renal outcome. Every 10 mm Hg wider PP was associated with 6% higher risk of an ASCVD event or death (time-updated adjusted hazard ratio [HR]=1.06, 95% CI 1.04, 1.08) and 17% higher risk of the composite renal outcome (time-updated adjusted HR=1.17, 95% CI 1.16, 1.18). Wider PP was associated with a higher risk of ASCVD events or death among participants in the lowest age tertile (21-61 years; Figure 1A ), but a higher risk of the composite renal outcome in the oldest age tertile (71-79 years; Figure 1B ), suggesting PP may be associated with different pathophysiology across ages.
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