Blood pressure control and antihypertensive medication use after discharge and prognosis of ischemic stroke

Objective: To investigate the effect of consistently blood pressure (BP) control status after discharge on adverse clinical outcomes among ischemic stroke (IS) patients. Methods: Three thousand, four hundred and six acute IS patients were included and followed up at 3 months, 12 months, and 24 months after stroke. Study outcomes were defined as death, vascular events and composite of death or vascular events. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confident interval (CI) of death and the composite outcome of death or vascular events associated with BP control and antihypertensive medication use. Results: The multivariable adjusted HRs were 0.22 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.09–0.57] for death and 0.60 (95% CI: 0.39–0.97) for the composite outcome of death or vascular events among participants with consistently controlled BP compared with those with consistently uncontrolled BP. The participants with both consistently controlled BP and regular use of antihypertensive medication had the lowest risks of death [hazard ratio (HR): 0.18, 95% CI: 0.04–0.75] and composite outcome of death or vascular events (HR: 0.54, 95% CI: 0.29–0.98) in comparison with those with both uncontrolled BP and irregular use of antihypertensive medication. Discussion: Continuous BP control and regular use of antihypertensive medications after discharge can decrease the risks of death and composite outcome of death or vascular events among IS patients, suggesting the importance of continuous BP control and regular use of antihypertensive medications after discharge for improving prognosis of IS.