Effects of blood pressure lowering in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The efficacy and safety of blood pressure lowering in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) remain unknown. We systematically searched PubMed/Medline, ICHUSHI, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Library database for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the efficacy and safety of blood pressure lowering in patients with HFpEF that were published from January 1996 to July 2017. Our study included a total of 10 RCTs involving 13,091 patients with HFpEF that compared all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, heart failure hospitalization, renal dysfunction, and/or hypotension between drug intervention and control groups. Then, we analyzed systolic blood pressure (SBP) before and during trials using the SBP from the RCTs data. SBP decreased in the intervention group (134.7–130.2 mmHg) more than that in the control group (134.4–133.3 mmHg), and heart failure hospitalization was reduced in the intervention group compared to that in the control group [RR 0.89 (0.82–0.97), P = 0.006]. There was no effect of treatment on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and hypotension. However, in the studies that compared renal function, SBP decreased in the intervention group (134.3–129.6 mmHg) more than that in the control group (134.0–132.8 mmHg), and the occurrence of renal dysfunction increased in the intervention group compared to that in the control group [RR 1.52 (1.31–1.76), P < 0.00001)]. Blood pressure lowering that achieves SBP levels of ~130 mmHg may be related to the reduction in heart failure hospitalization in patients with HFpEF, but it also possibly leads to an increased risk of renal dysfunction.