Differential Impact of Blood Pressure–Lowering Drugs on Central Aortic Pressure and Clinical Outcomes

Background—Different blood pressure (BP)–lowering drugs could have different effects on central aortic pressures and thus cardiovascular outcome despite similar effects on brachial BP. The Conduit Artery Function Evaluation (CAFE) study, a substudy of the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT), examined the impact of 2 different BP lowering-regimens (atenolol thiazide-based versus amlodipine perindopril-based therapy) on derived central aortic pressures and hemodynamics. Methods and Results—The CAFE study recruited 2199 patients in 5 ASCOT centers. Radial artery applanation tonometry and pulse wave analysis were used to derive central aortic pressures and hemodynamic indexes on repeated visits for up to 4 years. Most patients received combination therapy throughout the study. Despite similar brachial systolic BPs between treatment groups ( 0.7 mm Hg; 95% CI, 0.4 to 1.7; P 0.2), there were substantial reductions in central aortic pressures with the amlodipine regimen (central aortic systolic BP, 4.3 mm Hg; 95% CI, 3.3 to 5.4; P 0.0001; central aortic pulse pressure, 3.0 mm Hg; 95% CI, 2.1 to 3.9; P 0.0001). Cox proportional-hazards modeling showed that central pulse pressure was significantly associated with a post hoc–defined composite outcome of total cardiovascular events/procedures and development of renal impairment in the CAFE cohort (unadjusted, P 0.0001; adjusted for baseline variables, P 0.05). Conclusions—BP-lowering drugs can have substantially different effects on central aortic pressures and hemodynamics despite a similar impact on brachial BP. Moreover, central aortic pulse pressure may be a determinant of clinical outcomes, and differences in central aortic pressures may be a potential mechanism to explain the different clinical outcomes between the 2 BP treatment arms in ASCOT. (Circulation. 2006;113:1213-1225.)