Tremlett H, Zhu F, Ascherio A, Munger KL. Sun exposure over the life course and associations with multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2018 Mar 7 [Epub ahead of print].
New Blood Pressure Guidelines May Not Benefit Everyone
The new blood pressure guidelines could harm certain patients, according to a study published online ahead of print March 2 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Investigators examined the effect of 10-year cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk on primary outcome events and serious adverse events in the Systolic Pressure Intervention Trial, which was a basis for the new guidelines. They stratified patients by quartiles of risk and used Cox proportional hazards models to examine associations. From the first to fourth quartiles, the number needed to treat to prevent primary outcomes decreased from 91 to 38. The number needed to harm for all-cause serious adverse events increased from 62 to 250. Classifying patients by future risk could identify patients who would benefit from intensive treatment, said the authors.
Phillips RA, Xu J, Peterson LE, et al. Impact of cardiovascular risk on the relative benefit and harm of intensive treatment of hypertension. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2018 Mar 2 [Epub ahead of print].
—Kimberly Williams