Severity of Hypertension Correlates with Risk of Thromboembolic Stroke

Abstract

Hypertension plays a significant role in the development of atrial fibrillation (AF) and its complications. The coexistence of the two diseases increases the risk of thromboembolism events. Although CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores have been used in the evaluation of the thromboembolism events in AF patients, the different levels of the blood pressure are not appropriately recognized. In this study, the 970 AF patients were divided into three groups according to the severity of hypertension. The CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores in the patients of grade 3 hypertension were significantly higher than those of the patients with grade 1 and 2 hypertension, respectively (P < 0.05). Both the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores were positively related to the severity of hypertension (P < 0.001). Our data demonstrated that three grades for hypertensive subjects with AF significantly improved antithrombotic risk stratification in addition to current clinical risk stratification models, such as CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores.