Optimal Blood Pressure for Asymptomatic Aortic Stenosis: Still Unclear

Little evidence exists to identify an optimal blood pressure (BP) for people with aortic stenosis (AS). The 2014 ACC/AHA Valvular Heart Disease Guidelines make a Class I recommendation that hypertension in patients with asymptomatic AS should follow standard approaches. To identify optimal BP in these patients, investigators used observational data from the Simvastatin and Ezetimibe in Aortic Stenosis study (SEAS), which investigated whether intensive lipid lowering reduced need for aortic valve replacement or risk for cardiovascular mortality and mobility.

The new analysis included a subset of 1767 patients (age range, 45–85) with asymptomatic mild-to-moderate aortic stenosis. During a median follow-up of 4.3 years, 188 deaths, 66 strokes, …