Aortic pressure

Central Aortic Blood pressure (CAP) or (CASP) is the blood pressure at the root of Aorta. Recent studies have shown the importance of central aortic pressure and its implications in assessing the efficacy of antihypertensive treatment with respect to cardiovascular risk factors.^[1]. The traditional method of measuring blood pressure in the arms seems to underestimate and overestimate the efficacy of drugs like the amlodipine and atenolol respectively. It was demonstrated in a large clinical trial that different blood pressure lowering medication have different effect on the central aortic pressure and blood flow characteristics despite having similar branchial blood pressure reading. The study also indicate that the CAP is a better independent predictor of cardiovascular and renal outcome.^[2]

References

Further Reading

CAFE - The Conduit Artery Functional Endpoint Study
ASCOT - Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial