This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) CME: Take the course for this article: Circulation: September 22, 2009, Volume 120, Number 12 All Versions of this Article: 120/12/1084    most recent CIRCULATIONAHA.108.773119v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Google Scholar Articles by Zanchetti, A. Articles by Mancia, G. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Zanchetti, A. Articles by Mancia, G. Pubmed/NCBI databases Compound via MeSH Substance via MeSH Medline Plus Health Information Blood Pressure Medicines High Blood Pressure Related Collections Cardiovascular Pharmacology Clinical Studies Epidemiology Related Article

(Circulation. 2009;120:1084-1090.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

Hypertension

Baseline Values but Not Treatment-Induced Changes in Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Predict Incident Cardiovascular Events in Treated Hypertensive Patients

Findings in the European Lacidipine Study on Atherosclerosis (ELSA)

Alberto Zanchetti, MD; Michael Hennig, PhD; Regina Hollweck, MS; Gene Bond, PhD; Rong Tang, MD; Cesare Cuspidi, MD; Gianfranco Parati, MD; Rita Facchetti, MD; Giuseppe Mancia, MD

From Centro Interuniversitario di Fisiologia Clinica e Ipertensione, Università di Milano, Milan, Italy (A.Z.); Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy (A.Z., C.C., G.P.); Institute for Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany (M.H., R.H.); Division of Vascular Ultrasound Research, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC (G.B., R.T.); and Clinica Medica, Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica, Prevenzione e Biotecnologie Sanitarie, Università di Milano Bicocca, Monza, Italy (C.C., G.P., R.F., G.M.).

Correspondence to Professor Alberto Zanchetti, MD, Centro di Fisiologia Clinica e Ipertensione, Università di Milano–Ospedale Maggiore, Via F. Sforza, 35, 20122 Milano, Italy. E-mail alberto.zanchetti{at}unimi.it

Received February 13, 2008; accepted June 26, 2009.

Background— Baseline carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and plaques are considered predictors of cardiovascular events, but whether they maintain predictive value in treated hypertensive patients and whether time-related (or treatment-induced) IMT changes are additional predictors are unknown.

Methods and Results— Analyses were performed of the data from the European Lacidipine Study on Atherosclerosis (ELSA), a large, randomized, intervention trial in which 2334 hypertensive patients from 7 European countries were followed up under effective antihypertensive treatment for 3.75 years. Kaplan–Meier curves indicated progressively lower survival free of any type of outcome except stroke, with increasing baseline IMT quartiles or increasing IMT values, even after adjustment for major baseline risk factors. Incidence of any outcome except stroke also was related to baseline number of carotid plaques. However, when both baseline and on-treatment IMT values were entered in Cox proportional-hazards models, differences in IMT compared with baseline did not predict cardiovascular outcomes. Although on-treatment rather than baseline IMT values significantly entered some of the proportional-hazards models, baseline and on-treatment IMTs were highly correlated, and therefore these results are inconclusive.

Conclusions— ELSA shows that carotid intima-media thickening and plaques are important added risks of cardiovascular outcomes in a treated hypertensive population independently of blood pressure and traditional risk factors. However, the analysis failed to show a predictive role of treatment-dependent IMT changes. These negative conclusions should be tempered by the limitations inherent in the smallness of these changes compared with the large individual differences in baseline IMTs.

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CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE

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