American Journal of Hypertension最新文献

Background: Drug concentration in blood or urine is an acknowledged method to detect nonadherence. Observational studies suggest that informing patients about low or absent serum drug levels improves blood pressure (BP). We performed a multicenter randomized clinical trial to test the hypothesis that therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) could improve drug adherence and BP in patients with uncontrolled hypertension (HT).

Methods: Patients were ≥18 years on stable treatment with at least 2 antihypertensive agents. We planned to randomize 80 nonadherent patients with a systolic daytime ambulatory BP ≥135 mm Hg to TDM intervention or not. The control group and the study personnel who measured BP remained uninformed about serum drug measurements throughout. All patients and physicians were blinded for BPs. Lifestyle advice and detailed information on the disease process and the importance of BP treatment were given to both groups.

Results: From 2017 to 2022, we randomized 46 diagnosed nonadherent from a total of 606 patients with uncontrolled HT. The TDM group had a 6.7 (±14.5) mm Hg reduction from 147.9 (±10.3) to 141.1 (±14.1) mm Hg, and the control group experienced a 7.3 (±13.2) mm Hg reduction from 147.1 (±9.2) to 139.1 (±17.4) mm Hg, P = 0.9 between groups. Adherence improved in both groups, 73% in the TDM group and 59% in the control group became adherent at 3 months, P = 0.51.

Conclusions: In our prospective multicenter clinical trial of uncontrolled and nonadherent hypertensive patients, we found no additional effect of TDM on BP and drug adherence compared with standard care.

Clinical trials registration: Trial Number NCT03209154, www.clinicaltrials.gov.

Background: International standards used for device validation protocols require that the reference cuff conforms to a width and length that is 37 to 50% and 75 to 100% of the arm circumference, respectively. However, there is no published chart of appropriate width and length dimensions across the range of arm circumferences. The objective of this report was to create a chart that could be used to guide reference cuff selection and compare recommended dimensions with two common cuff systems.

Methods: Arm circumferences, ranging from 22 to 52 cm were used to create a reference table for width and length requirements. Arm circumferences were grouped following the American Heart Association (AHA) recommendation for cuff sizes. Cuff dimension data was extracted from the website of a cuff system commonly used for validations (the Baum Corporation). Both the AHA recommendations and Baum sizes were compared with the recommended reference dimensions.

Results: There were discrepancies in size naming conventions between the Baum Corporation and the AHA cuff systems. Moreover, there were gaps in both systems where the cuff would not be recommended for validation (31-32 cm for Baum and 30-31 cm for the AHA). Neither system had cuffs that could be used for the largest arm circumferences.

Conclusions: This chart highlights the need for more than one cuff system in validation studies and the critical need for cuffs that could be used for validation among larger arm circumferences.

Background: Salt-sensitive hypertension is often more prone to induce damage to target organs such as the heart and kidneys. Abundant recent studies have demonstrated a close association between ferroptosis and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, we hypothesize that ferroptosis may be closely associated with organ damage in salt-sensitive hypertension. This study aimed to investigate whether ferroptosis is involved in the occurrence and development of myocardial fibrosis and renal fibrosis in salt-sensitive hypertensive rats.

Methods: Ten 7-week-old male Dahl salt-sensitive (Dahl-SS) rats were adaptively fed for 1 week, then randomly divided into two groups and fed either a normal diet (0.3% NaCl, normal diet group) or a high-salt diet (8% NaCl, high-salt diet group) for 8 weeks. Blood pressure of the rats was observed, and analysis of the hearts and kidneys of Dahl-SS rats was conducted via hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, Masson staining, Prussian blue staining, transmission electron microscopy, tissue iron content detection, malondialdehyde content detection, immunofluorescence, and Western blot.

Results: Compared to the normal diet group, rats in the high-salt diet group had increases in systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure (P < 0.05); collagen fiber accumulation was observed in the heart and kidney tissues (P < 0.01), accompanied by alterations in mitochondrial ultrastructure, reduced mitochondrial volume, and increased density of the mitochondrial double membrane. Additionally, there were significant increases in both iron content and malondialdehyde levels (P < 0.05). Immunofluorescence and Western blot results both indicated significant downregulation (P < 0.05) of xCT and GPX4 proteins associated with ferroptosis in the high-salt diet group.

Conclusions: Ferroptosis is involved in the damage and fibrosis of the heart and kidney tissues in salt-sensitive hypertensive rats.

Backround: Complement activation may facilitate hypertension through its effects on immune responses. The anaphylatoxin C5a, a major inflammatory effector, binds to the C5a receptors 1 and 2 (C5aR1, C5aR2). We have recently shown that C5aR1-/- mice have reduced hypertensive renal injury. The role of C5aR2 in hypertension is unknown.

Methods: For examination of C5aR2 expression on infiltrating and resident renal cells a tandem dye Tomato-C5aR2 knock-in reporter mouse was used. Human C5aR2 expression was analyzed in a single-cell RNAseq data set from the kidneys of hypertensive patients. Finally, we examined the effect of angiotensin II-induced hypertension in C5aR2-deficient mice.

Results: Flow cytometric analysis of leukocytes isolated from kidneys of the reporter mice showed that dendritic cells are the major C5aR2-expressing population (34%) followed by monocyte/macrophages (30%) and neutrophils (14%). Using confocal microscopy C5aR2 was not detected in resident renal or cardiac cells. In the human kidney, C5aR2 was also mainly found in monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells with a significantly higher expression in hypertension (P < 0.05). Unilateral nephrectomy was performed followed by infusion of Ang II (0.75 ng/g/min) and a high salt diet in wildtype (n = 18) and C5aR2-deficient mice (n = 14). Blood pressure, renal injury (albuminuria, glomerular filtration rate, glomerular and tubulointerstitial injury, inflammation), and cardiac injury (cardiac fibrosis, heart weight, gene expression) did not differ between hypertensive wildtype and C5aR2-/- mice.

Conclusions: In summary, C5aR2 is mainly expressed in myeloid cells in the kidney in mice and humans but its deficiency has no effect on Ang II-induced hypertensive injury.

Background: Previous studies with several limitations have comparatively analyzed the relationship between ambulatory blood pressure (BP) and self-measured BP and biomarkers of organ damage. This study extends this line of research by examining the relationship between ambulatory and self-measured BP and cardiac, renal, and atherosclerotic biomarkers in outpatients at cardiovascular risk.

Methods: In 1,440 practice outpatients who underwent office, ambulatory, and self-measured BP monitoring, we assessed the relationships of each BP with organ damage biomarkers including b-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), echocardiographic left ventricular mass index (LVMI), urine albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR), and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV).

Results: In the comparison of correlation, self-measured systolic BP (SBP) was more strongly correlated to log-transformed (Ln) BNP (n = 1,435; r = 0.123 vs. r = -0.093, P < 0.001), LVMI (n = 1,278; r = 0.223 vs. r = 0.094, P < 0.001), Ln-UACR (n = 1,435; r = 0.244 vs. r = 0.154, P = 0.010), and baPWV (n = 1,360; r = 0.327 vs. r = 0.115, P < 0.001) than daytime ambulatory SBP. In the linear regression models including office, ambulatory, and self-measured SBP, only self-measured SBP was significantly related to Ln-BNP (P = 0.016) and LVMI (P < 0.001). In the logistic regression models for the top quartile of LVMI, adding self-measured SBP improved the model predictability (P = 0.027), but adding daytime ambulatory SBP did not. However, adding daytime ambulatory SBP improved the model predictability in the logistic model for the top quartile of baPWV including office and self-measured SBP (P = 0.030).

Conclusions: Our study findings suggested that self-measured BP was associated with cardiac biomarkers independent of ambulatory BP.