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Elevated blood pressure remains a major cause of cardiovascular disease, disability, and premature death in Austria, with suboptimal rates of detection, treatment and control also in recent years. Management of hypertension is a common challenge for physicians with different spezializations. In an attempt to standardize diagnostic and therapeutic strategies and, ultimately, to increase the rate of patients with controlled blood pressure and to decrease the burden of cardiovascular disease, 13 Austrian medical societies reviewed the evidence regarding prevention, detection, workup, treatment and consequences of high blood pressure in general and in various clinical scenarios. The result is presented as the first national consensus on blood pressure. The authors and societies involved are convinced that a joint national effort is needed to decrease hypertension-related morbidity and mortality in our country.

High blood pressure is a major modifiable risk factor for all clinical manifestations of coronary artery disease (CAD). In people without known cardiovascular disease, the lowest systolic (down to 90-114 mmHg) and the lowest diastolic (down to 60-74 mmHg) pressures are associated with the lowest risk for developing CAD. Although diastolic blood pressure is the strongest predictor of CAD in younger and middle-aged people, this relationship becomes inverted and pulse pressure shows the strongest direct relationship with CAD in people above 60 years of age.Pathophysiological mechanisms of blood pressure as a risk factor for CAD are complex and include the influence of blood pressure as a physical force on the development of the atherosclerotic plaque, and the relationship between pulsatile hemodynamics/arterial stiffness and coronary perfusion. Treatment of arterial hypertension has been proven to prevent coronary events in patients without clinical CAD. In patients with established CAD, the effect of blood pressure lowering per se is beneficial, probably more than specific drugs or drug classes. The important exceptions are beta blockers (BBs), which are superior to all other drug classes for use after a recent myocardial infarction. Blood pressure targets in patients with established CAD have created controversy in the light of the so-called J-curve phenomenon, which describes an increase in coronary events at lower diastolic blood pressures. One explanation for this observation is that perfusion of the left ventricle occurs predominantly during diastole, and that coronary autoregulation may be exhausted with low diastolic blood pressure in the setting of left ventricular hypertrophy and atherosclerotic narrowing of the epicardial coronaries. The worst situation is a high systolic blood pressure in the presence of a low diastolic blood pressure, both a hallmark of increased aortic stiffness. However, the lowering of systolic blood pressure is clearly beneficial in this setting, even at the price of further lowering diastolic pressure. Primary blood pressure goal in patients with established CAD is below 140/90 mmHg. Recent studies suggest that a lower systolic blood pressure may be appropriate, whereas caution is advised with diastolic blood pressure below 60 mmHg.

Die von den aktuellen Guidelines empfohlenen tiefen Zielwerte fur die Hochdruckbehandlung, besonders fur Patienten mit Diabetes oder mit anderen Hochrisikokonstellationen, fanden in der Vergangenheit durch die Ergebnisse von Therapiestudien wenig empirische Unterstutzung. Ziel dieses Reviews ist es auf Basis rezenter Therapiestudien und post hoc Analysen alterer Studien die Zweckmasigkeit und Sicherheit tiefer Blutdruckwerte zu analysieren. ERGEBNISSE: Sowohl bei Patienten mit KHK oder KHK-Aquivalent als auch mit Diabetes war mit einer systolischen Blutdrucksenkung auf 130 bis 135 mmHg uberwiegend eine Reduktion von primaren oder sekundaren kardiovaskularen Endpunkten nachweisbar. Zwischen 120 und 129 mmHg liesen sich bei KHK Patienten teilweise positive Effekte zeigen, nicht so bei Patienten mit Diabetes oder metabolischem Syndrom. Unter 120 mmHg war in mehreren Studien eine Verschlechterung der Prognose feststellbar. Fur Patienten mit diabetischer oder anderer Nephropathie inklusive solchen mit erheblicher Proteinurie liegen keine uberzeugenden Daten vor, die einen Vorteil einer Senkung des systolischen Blutdrucks unter 130 gegenuber unter 140 mmHg zeigen. Allerdings wurde sowohl in der primaren wie in der sekundaren Schlaganfallprophylaxe wiederholt gezeigt, dass das Risiko kontinuierlich bis zu einem systolischen Wert von etwa 120 mmHg oder sogar etwas darunter abnimmt. Bei 70 bis 80 Jahre alten Patienten spricht die derzeitige Datenlage fur eine systolische Blutdrucksenkung auf 135 bis 145 mmHg, bei uber 80 Jahrigen auf 145 bis 155 mmHg. Fur diastolische Werte scheint unabhangig von zusatzlichen Erkrankungen ein Zielbereich zwischen 70 und 85 mmHg am gunstigsten zu sein. Limitierung der Aussagekraft vieler Hochdruckstudien ist ihre kurze Laufzeit, ihre geringen Ereignisraten und/oder die geringen Druckunterschiede zwischen den Vergleichsgruppen, die Langzeitwirkungen nicht verlasslich beurteilen lassen. FAZIT: Fur die Sinnhaftigkeit einer systolischen Blutdrucksenkung unter 130 mmHg liegen mit Ausnahme einer Reduktion von Schlaganfallen bis zu etwa 120 mmHg derzeit nur sparlich evidenzbasierten Ergebnisse vor. Vorbehaltlich, dass echte Langzeitergebnisse fehlen, ist vermutlich fur alle Hochdruckkranken mit Ausnahme von Jugendlichen und sehr Alten eine Drucksenkung auf 130 bis 140 systolisch und 70 bis 85 mmHg diastolisch ausreichend. Eine starkere Senkung durfte bestenfalls eine geringe weitere Risikoreduktion nach sich ziehen, diastolische Senkung unter 70mmHg kann das Risiko erhohen.

There is little evidence from controlled prospective studies to support the low blood pressure goals stipulated for the treatment of hypertension by present guidelines, especially in high-risk patients with diabetes, renal insufficiency or coronary heart disease. Aim of this review is to scrutinize the potential benefit and risk of low blood pressure on the basis of recent studies and secondary analyses of older studies.In patients with coronary heart disease or equivalent or with diabetes lowering systolic blood pressure to 130 to 135 mmHg reduced primary or secondary cardiovascular endpoints in the majority of studies. Between 120 and 129 mmHg some positive effects could be shown in patients with coronary heart disease but not in patients with diabetes or metabolic syndrome. In patients with diabetic or nondiabetic nephropathy including those with proteinurea no convincing data exist which show a better outcome with systolic blood pressure below 130 versus below 140 mmHg. However, several studies suggest that the risk of stroke may decrease by lowering systolic pressure to 120 mmHg or even lower. Below 120 mmHg an increased risk of cardiac and noncardiac events or death was shown in quite a number of studies. In patients between 70 and 80 years, current evidence suggests lowering systolic blood pressure to 135 to 145 mmHg and in those above 80 years to 145 to 155 mmHg. No evidence was found to justify different diastolic pressure goals for different groups of patients; optimal values fall between 70 and 85 mmHg. Limitations of recent studies are short follow-up, few event rates and small differences in achieved pressure between groups leaving uncertainty about long-term effects.Apart from prevention of stroke there is sparse evidence that lowering systolic blood pressure below 130 mmHg may be beneficial. Current evidence suggests that lowering systolic and diastolic pressure into a range of 130 to 140/70 to 85 may be adequate for all patients with the exception of children, adolescents and patients over 80 years. Further lowering of systolic pressure seems to offer little additional benefit and lowering diastolic pressure below 70 mmHg might increase risk.

OBJECTIVE: In view of ethical considerations and the limited resources in intensive care medicine, the present investigation aims to give a descriptive overview of the prognosis and therapeutic activity for the oldest age group of elderly patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) in comparison with younger ICU patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 3069 patients admitted to the ICU during a seven-year period were categorized into four age groups: under 65 years (48%), 65 to 74 years (26%), 75 to 85 years (22%) and 85 years or older (5%). Type and reason for ICU admission, length of ICU stay, severity of illness as measured by the simplified acute physiology score (SAPS)-II, level of provided care as measured by the simplified therapeutic intervention scoring system (TISS)-28, and vital status at the date of ICU discharge were recorded. RESULTS: The ICU mortality rate of patients aged 85 years or older was significantly higher than in patients under 65 (OR of mortality: 1.8, p < 0.001). Non-survivors had higher SAPS II levels (even when excluding age points) in all age groups, but higher daily average TISS points only in patients under 85. The daily average TISS score was negatively correlated to age (r = −0.03; p < 0.001) and was significantly lower in the oldest group when compared with all the younger groups (p < 0.001). The oldest patients had a significantly shorter length of stay (median: 2; interquartile range [IQR] 1–3, p < 0.001) than the younger patient groups. CONCLUSIONS: Within the very elderly population, age is an important and independent predictor of mortality, but acute severity of illness is even more strongly associated with mortality. Consequently, age alone may be an inappropriate criterion for allocation of ICU resources.

Risk factor control has been shown to reduce the incidence of coronary events in patients with or without preceding infarction. Secondary prevention should therefore be borne in mind by every cardiologist. In order to test this concept and/or to promote secondary prevention in our country, the following survey was conducted by our working group for epidemiology and prevention. All interventional centres of the country (7 million inhabitants) were asked to report relevant data of 50 consecutive patients with PTCA in a structured questionnaire. Thirteen centres responded and we report the data of 650 patients. The mean proportion of women was 28%, the mean age 61.1 years and the mean stent rate 49.8%. The indications for PTCA varied widely: stable angina 10-74%, unstable angina 10-86%, primary PTCA 0-22%. The risk factor history was distributed as follows: diabetes 12-46% (mean 22.3%), hypertension 32-68% (mean 54.2%), current smoking 6-56% (mean 21.9%), and total cholesterol (TChol)200 mg/dl: 30-78% (mean 60.3%). Current lipid values were available for T chol. in 44-100% (mean 84.5%) and for LDL in 4-100% (mean 67.1%). Dietary counselling by a dietician was done in 4-100% of patients (mean 35.6%) Information concerning the hazards of smoking was given to 25-100% (mean 83.6%) of current smokers. Drug treatment at hospital discharge was as follows: 84-100% (mean 93.1%) received ASA, 24-74% (mean 49.8%) ticlopidine, 6-84% (mean 53.3%) nitrates, 34-82% (mean 60.2%) beta blockers, 10-70% (mean 39.5%) ACE inhibitors, 4-74% (mean 4 7.2%) lipid lowering drugs, 7-48% (mean 17.8%) calcium antagonists, 0-12% (mean 6.1%) digitalis and 0-28% (mean 13.6%) diuretics. Follow-up data were collected in 4 centres at 6 months post discharge and were available for 174 patients. Here we found an increase in the prescription of calcium antagonists, digitalis and statins. The following conclusions were drawn at a conference in which all centres participated: lipid values should be available for each patient at PTCA, dietary counselling should be initiated for every patient during hospitalisation (and continued by the family physician) and the national cardiac society should promote guidelines for the use of drugs in which the variation in use is too wide at present. It should be ensured that these guidelines are implemented not only in patients after AMI but also in those after PTCA.

The frequent use of invasive procedures for diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment in intensive care units engenders often underestimated dangers due to human error or complications which are to some extent inherent. A brief survey is given of adverse events in connection with central venous catheters, Swan-Ganz catheters, arterial lines, endotracheal intubation, gastric tubes, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Strategies to reduce the risks are outlined. Documentation of adverse events and near misses, along with an analysis of their causes constitute indispensable elements of quality control in intensive care medicine. Policies to avoid adverse events, as well as guidelines to recognize and treat them promptly should be regularly scrutinized.

In patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation one must differentiate between those without a clinically suspected embolic event and those who have sustained embolism or stroke of uncertain origin. All of the latter should undergo echocardiography as part of a comprehensive search for a possible source of embolism. A positive finding will enhance the probability that the ischaemic event was indeed caused by a cardiac embolus. It must be kept in mind, especially in stroke patients, that long-term anticoagulation will expose many of them to a far higher risk of haemorrhage [26] due to multimorbidity, propensity to repeated falls and difficulties in compliance than it did to the carefully selected cohorts of the recent warfarin studies. Whenever transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) fails to disclose an unequivocal cardiac source of embolism, transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) should be performed. In persons with atrial fibrillation but no history of systemic embolisation the only rationale for performing echocardiography is to rule out heart disease in clinically suspected lone atrial fibrillation. For the rest of this group TEE remains an investigative tool.

The diagnostic accuracy of the dipyridamole test in provoking coronary insufficiency was investigated in 79 patients with chest pain and the results were compared with the findings on angiography and exercise electrocardiogram. 58 patients had documented severe coronary artery stenosis, 21 had patent coronary vessels (cardiomyopathy 8, aortic stenosis 1, ectopic origin of coronary artery 1, normal 11). Anginal pain after dipyridamole was a non-specific finding. Approximately half the subjects in whom coronary insufficiency would be expected according to the coronary angiographic and ventriculographic findings evidenced ischaemic ST-segment depression after dipyridamole, which was comparable to the number of positive exercise electrocardiograms. In 23 patients, most of whom had shown an inadequate frequency response during the initial exercise test, ergometry was repeated after the administration of dipyridamole. This resulted in an increase in ischaemic ECG response from 26 to 70%. It is concluded that a stress test combining dipyridamole and submaximum exercise increases the incidence of ischaemic ST-segment depression in comparison with ergometry alone. Anginal pain without ST-segment depression proved to be without diagnostic value.

The principle of the ultrasound examination of the heart is explained and the possible applications of this method are discussed. Three case histories are presented to exemplify the usefulness of echocardiography in clinical cardiology.

Indications, results, and complications in 400 transfemoral selective coronary arteriograms are reported. After the first 100 examinations a sharp decline in serious complications and an increase in complete studies with opacifications of both coronary arteries and left ventricle was achieved. This was thought to be due not only to mounting experience but also to total body heparinization and transfemoral use of Sones catheters with torque control. According to our results transfemoral selective coronary arteriography is considered to be an indispensable examination which may be performed by experienced investigators without hesitation when indicated.

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the adequacy of heparin treatment in deep venous thrombosis and the rate of symptomatic complications under the everyday conditions of a hospital. The investigation was carried out in 200 consecutive patients, 117 women and 83 men (mean age 61 +/- 17 years) with verified deep venous thrombosis. Na-heparin was given over 12 +/- 7 days; the initial daily dosage amounting to 31700 IU followed by a maintenance dosage of 36150 IU. 153 patients were treated exclusively or predominantly by the subcutaneous route (3 times daily) and 47 by continuous i.v. infusion. In the i.v. group 47% of thrombin times (TT) were prolonged to values exceeding 48 seconds in comparison with only 39% in the subcutaneous group (p less than 0.001). 34 patients developed thromboembolic complications (pulmonary embolism in 33), causing death in 13 cases. Patients with thromboembolic complications differed from those without in respect to the rate of a therapeutically prolonged TT (10% vs 44%, p less than 0.001) and signs of pulmonary embolism on admission (44% vs 8%, p less than 0.001), but not with respect to heparin dosage. Thromboembolic complications appeared in only 3 patients receiving i.v. therapy. Patients with thrombosis of the iliac or femoral veins appeared twice as likely to develop pulmonary embolism than patients with calf vein thrombosis (n.s.). Bleeding was registered in 11 patients. One patient died from retroperitoneal haemorrhage. At the time of bleeding 10 patients were on subcutaneous heparin and in 9 patients the TT was prolonged to over 2 minutes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The value and limitations of phonocardiography, systolic time intervals, apex cardiography and kinetocardiography in the diagnosis of impaired cardiac function during rest and haemodynamic stress were critically reviewed on the basis of studies carried out in our laboratory, as well as reports in the literature. When compared with invasively-obtained measurements, none of the above-mentioned techniques allows the prediction of heart function quantitatively in a single given patient. However, when one considers the broad overlap of mechanocardiographic measurements in normal subjects and patients with heart disease and defines an abnormal mechanocardiogram accordingly, these methods may be used to diagnose abnormal cardiac function with adequate specificity though low sensitivity.

Thrombosis of the basilar artery is not a rare disease, and the mortality is reported to be 60 to 80%. Present standard therapy with heparin infusions yields poor results. The high risk of intracerebral haemorrhage prohibits systemic fibrinolytic therapy. Due to these facts and good experience in our department with the use of local intracoronary lysis in acute myocardial infarction, the method of local thrombolysis was applied in a case of acute basilar artery thrombosis. Fibrinolytic therapy was started via an angiography catheter placed in the vertebral artery in a 28 year-old woman with hemiplegia and severe brain stem symptoms. The patient received 200,000 IU streptokinase within 2 hours and subsequently 300,000 IU urokinase within 10 hours. The vessel re-opened completely. The neurological symptoms decreased during the following weeks. Based on this experience and according to rare reports in the literature we believe local low-dose thrombolysis to be a causal therapy promising success for acute thrombosis of the basilar artery. This therapy can be carried out in every medical centre able to perform selective angiography and experienced in the administration of fibrinolytic drugs.

The value of vasodilator drugs in the treatment of patients with chronic congestive heart failure is reviewed on the basis of the randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trials so far published. Apparently, venous, or combined venous and arteriolar dilation in addition to cardiac glycosides and diuretics may produce long-term improvement in advanced stages of heart failure. Vasodilators with isolated afterload reducing properties seem to be of limited value. Long-term improvement with nitrates and alpha-receptor blocking agents is often modest, probably due to development of tolerance. The most striking results were observed with converting enzyme inhibitors: they evoke virtually no tolerance, improve haemodynamics at rest and during exercise, relieve symptoms of heart failure and are even suggested to reduce mortality.

Acute dissection of the ascending aorta is a life-threatening disease. Successful management requires close teamwork of internal medical specialist, radiologist and cardiovascular surgeon. The diagnostic and therapeutic approach is reviewed on the basis of 18 of our own cases - 15 men and 3 women aged from 42 to 88 years. Peculiarities of history, pain and ECG give valuable clues to the differentiation of aortic dissection from myocardial infarction and massive pulmonary embolism. As a non-invasive rapidly available diagnostic method echocardiography may yield decisive information about the aortic root and the presence of pericardial effusion. Definite confirmation of diagnosis is accomplished by aortography and/or computed tomography. Blood pressure and aortic flow must be decreased to the lowest level tolerated by the patient to prevent pericardial tamponade or rupture into the mediastinum. The urgency of surgical repair is underlined by a median survival time of 12 hours from onset of symptoms to death with conservative treatment. 7 of our patients were operated on. In 6 cases surgery was performed by means of extracorporeal circulation and the ascending aorta was replaced by a graft. 3 patients survived the operation (2 for over 2 years and three died in the postoperative period due to cerebral and pulmonary complications). In one case with inoperable dissection an axillo-femoral bypass was performed for relief of complete ischaemia of the left lower limb. Postoperatively, maintainance of the patient's blood pressure at the low normal level ist mandatory.

A brief survey is given of some of the most frequent extracardiac causes which may provoke disturbances of rhythm. The importance of psychogenic and metabolic factors is emphasized. Additional organic lesions cannot be excluded in every case.