Journal of hypertension
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Journal of hypertension · Nov 2006
Review Meta AnalysisHow strong is the evidence for use of beta-blockers as first-line therapy for hypertension? Systematic review and meta-analysis.
To quantify the effect of first-line antihypertensive treatment with beta-blockers on mortality, morbidity and withdrawal rates, compared with the other main classes of antihypertensive agents. ⋯ Beta-blockers are inferior to CCBs and to RAS inhibitors for reducing several important hard end points. Compared with diuretics, they had similar outcomes, but were less well tolerated. Hence beta-blockers are generally suboptimal first-line antihypertensive drugs.
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Journal of hypertension · Oct 2006
Electrocardiographic strain pattern and left ventricular diastolic function in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy: the LIFE study.
Whether the typical electrocardiographic (ECG) strain pattern (Strain, in leads V5 and/or V6), which is associated with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and LV systolic dysfunction, is independently associated with LV diastolic dysfunction is unknown. ⋯ In hypertensive patients with ECG-LVH, the ECG Strain pattern did not identify independently those with more severe LV diastolic abnormalities.
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Journal of hypertension · Aug 2006
Randomized Controlled TrialN-terminal brain natriuretic peptide predicted cardiovascular events stronger than high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in hypertension: a LIFE substudy.
N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (Nt-proBNP) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) are cardiovascular risk markers in various populations, but are not well examined in hypertension. Therefore, we wanted to investigate whether high Nt-proBNP or hsCRP predicted the composite endpoint of cardiovascular death, non-fatal stroke or non-fatal myocardial infarction independently of traditional cardiovascular risk factors and the urine albumin: creatinine ratio (UACR), which is a well established cardiovascular risk factor in hypertension. ⋯ Nt-proBNP predicted a composite endpoint after adjustment for traditional risk factors, UACR and a history of diabetes or cardiovascular disease and added significantly to the prediction of composite endpoint, whereas hsCRP did not.
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Journal of hypertension · Aug 2006
Profound impact of uncomplicated pregnancy on diastolic, but not systolic pulse contour of aortic pressure.
To evaluate the impact of uncomplicated pregnancy on the pulse contour of central aortic pressure. ⋯ The systolic shape of the central aortic pressure contour is left unaltered by pregnancy, implying a finely tuned adaptation of the cardiovascular system to the increased demand for blood flow at all stages of the gravid state. In contrast, the amplitude of reflection waves reaching the aortic root in diastole progressively decreases with advancing pregnancy.