Description
Recently, I announced the initial results of the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT), a clinical trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health designed to determine the best way to treat blood pressure in adults with hypertension, 50 years or older, who are at risk for heart disease. The trial compared the outcomes of two treatment arms: a target systolic pressure of <120 mm Hg versus the commonly recommended target of <140 mm Hg. In this trial, individuals treated to attain the lower systolic blood pressure experienced 30% fewer complications of high blood pressure (including heart attacks, heart failure, and stroke) and almost 25% fewer deaths. These findings could have important implications for how we treat blood pressure in the future.
Further information about the trial can be found in the press release and brief fact sheet. The investigators and NHLBI are working to complete the final analyses which will be published in the near future. We anticipate that the final trial results and analyses will both inform the development of clinical treatment guidelines and individualized medical care.