Cardiovascular comorbidities and blood pressure control in stroke survivors

To examine the association of cardiovascular(CV) comorbidities with the likelihood of being a stroke survivor and to determine the prevalence, treatment, and control of hypertension in this population.

In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2004, 495 stroke survivors, aged 20 years or older, were characterized by CV risk factors and comorbidities. Hypertension prevalence, treatment,and control rates were determined and logistic regression was performed to examine the likelihood of stroke according to the presence of comorbidities.

Of the stroke survivors, 59.4% were women, 57.1%were at least 65 years of age, 66.2% were overweight/obese, 25.1% were current smokers, 75.1% had hypertension, and 79.3% had additional comorbidities,including diabetes mellitus (24.7%), coronary artery disease(28.8%), chronic kidney disease (25.3%), heart failure(16.5%), and peripheral arterial disease (10.9%). The odds(and 95% confidence intervals) of prevalent stroke were 2.2(1.5-3.2), 5.0 (3.2-7.8), 4.1 (2.1-7.8), and 10.0 (4.8-20.9)with one, two, three, and four or more comorbidities,respectively. Of these high-risk stroke survivors with comorbidities and hypertension, 18% were not receiving antihypertensive therapy; of those receiving therapy, 55.3%did not meet a systolic blood pressure goal of less than 140 mmHg and, on average, were 20 mmHg above this target.

A high percentage of stroke survivors,projected to 4.98 million adults in the USA have multiple CV risk factors, numerous comorbidities, and poor control of hypertension, placing them at increased risk for further complications. Therefore, increased efforts must be made to reduce overall global risk in these high-risk persons.