Blood Pressure and Renal Progression in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

High blood pressure (BP) may impair renal function following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, the predictability of renal progression based on admission and discharge BP and BP threshold values remains unclear.

A total of 8,176 adult patients who underwent PCI at Seoul National University Hospital from 2006 to 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Renal progression was defined as a doubling of serum creatinine levels, ≥50% decrease of the estimated glomerular filtration rate, or development of end-stage renal disease. The risk of renal progression according to admission BP (any time) and discharge BP (8:00-10:00 am) was evaluated by multivariable Cox and additive generalized models with penalized splines.

During a median follow-up of 7 years (maximum: 13 years), 9.3% of patients (n = 758) reached renal progression. BP between admission and discharge showed a low correlation, and all BP parameters showed a nonlinear relationship with renal progression. Systolic BP at discharge (SBPd) was selected as the best predictor of renal progression because the delta for the Akaike information criterion from the baseline model to the model with BP parameters was the lowest. The risk of renal progression started to increase at SBPd ≥ 125 mm Hg. This increasing risk of renal progression with SBPd ≥ 125 mm Hg remained significant, despite adjusting for the competing risk of all-cause death.

High SBPd is associated with renal progression following PCI, particularly when it is ≥125 mm Hg. This can be used as a risk classification and potential target of renoprotective therapies.