Evidence base regarding target levels of arterial pressure in patients after a stroke: focus on a geriatric population

Arterial hypertension (AH) is a very significant and most common risk factor for stroke, and lowering blood pressure (BP) is the most effective action to prevent stroke in patients with AH. This article provides an overview of existing randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and meta-analyzes to study the optimal target BP levels in patients with AH and cerebral events with a history of focusing on the geriatric population. As a result of the analysis of literature data, we obtained contradictory results: RCTs showed the benefits of lower target BP, in only two of them the target level of systolic BP (SBP) was less than 130 mm Hg, and the average age of patients included in the RCTs varied from 60 to 68 years, the number of patients older than 75 years was insignificant, and some studies excluded patients older than 85 years. Several subanalyses analyzed by RCTs found a J-shaped relationship between BP levels achieved and the risk of adverse cardiovascular events. One of them showed that with a decrease in BP below the SBP – 120 mm Hg and DBP – 65 mm Hg higher BP was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events. Another one showed that the risk of re-stroke and the risk of subsequent adverse events was statistically significantly higher in patients with an average level of SBP below 120 mm Hg than in patients with a level of SBP of 130–139 mm Hg. The meta-analysis published in the Cochrane database did not show significant advantages of lowering BP<130/85 mm Hg versus standard lowering BP<140–160/90–100 mm Hg, while another meta-analysis revealed some advantages of a more intense decrease in BP for the prevention of re-stroke. Existing studies did not take into account the heterogeneity of the geriatric population and did not include patients with fraility and multimorbidity patients, and did not take into account the type of stroke to develop a differentiated approach to the tactics of lowering BP in patients of all age groups. Therefore, in relation to the recommended ESC/ESH experts in 2018, target BP levels of 120–129/70–79 mm Hg (aged 18–65 years) and 130–139/70–79 mmHg (aged ≥65 years) for patients with AH and a history of cerebral events, there are still some doubts about the benefits of lower target BP values for the prevention of re-stroke and other cardiovascular events for the entire population of geriatric patients, especially patients older than 75, so specially designed randomized controlled trials are needed.