Korean J Intern Med.  2023 Jan;38(1):56-67. 10.3904/kjim.2022.249.

Long-term cardiovascular events in hypertensive patients: full report of the Korean Hypertension Cohort

• Lee JY
• Bak JK
• Kim M
• Shin HG
• Park KI
• Lee SP
• Lee HS
• Lee JY
• Kim Ki
• Kang SH
• Lee JH
• Jang SY
• Lee JH
• Kim KH
• Cho JY
• Park JH
• Park SK
• Lee HY

• KMID: 2537399
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3904/kjim.2022.249

Abstract

Background/Aims
This study evaluated the long-term cardiovascular complications among Korean patients with hypertension and compared them with that of controls without hypertension.
Methods
The Korean Hypertension Cohort (KHC) enrolled 11,043 patients with hypertension and followed them for more than 10 years. Age- and sex-matched controls without hypertension were enrolled at a 1:10 ratio. We compared the incidence of cardiovascular events and death among patients and controls without hypertension.
Results
The mean age was 59 years, and 34.8% and 16.5% of the patients belonged to the high and moderate cardiovascular risk groups, respectively. During the 10-year follow-up, 1,591 cardiovascular events (14.4%) with 588 deaths (5.3%) occurred among patients with hypertension and 7,635 cardiovascular events (6.9%) with 4,826 deaths (4.4%) occurred among controls. Even the low-risk population with hypertension showed a higher cardiovascular event rate than the population without hypertension. Although blood pressure measurements in the clinic showed remarkable inaccuracy compared with those measured in the national health examinations, systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥ 150 mmHg was significantly associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular events.
Conclusions
This long-term follow-up study confirmed the cardiovascular event rates among Korean hypertensive patients were substantial, reaching 15% in 10 years. SBP levels ≥ 150 mmHg were highly associated with occurrence of cardiovascular event rates.

Keyword

Hypertension; Blood pressure; Cardiovascular diseases