Blood Pressure Responses to Hypertension Treatment and Trends in Cognitive Function in Patients With Initially Difficult‐to‐Treat Hypertension: A Retrospective Subgroup Analysis of the Observational Study on Cognitive Function and SBP Reduction (OSCAR) Study

J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2012;14:78–84. ©2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The Observational Study on Cognitive Function and SBP Reduction (OSCAR) provided opportunities to examine the influence of eprosartan on trends in cognitive performance in a large population of patients with difficult‐to‐treat hypertension (DTTH). A total of 4649 patients diagnosed retrospectively with DTTH, defined as systolic/diastolic blood pressure (SBP/DBP) ≥140/90 mm Hg despite use of at least 3 antihypertensive drugs during the month preceding the baseline visit comprised the intention‐to‐treat (ITT) cohort. The patients were given eprosartan‐based antihypertension therapy (EBT; 600 mg/d). Blood pressure and cognitive function parameters included significant (P<.001) differences for DTTH vs non‐DTTH patients such as older age, body mass index, SBP and pulse pressure (PP), and lower Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. After EBT for 6 months, SBP/DBP in DTTH was 138.8±12.2/81.9±7.4 (ΔSBP−26±15.7; ΔDBP−11.4±9.8); PP was 57.0±10.8 (ΔPP−14.5±13.8) (all P<.001 vs baseline and non‐DTTH group). A total of 2576 patients (87.4%) responded to EBT (ie, SBP <140 mm Hg and/or ΔSBP ≥15 mm Hg, or DBP <90 mm Hg and/or ΔDBP ≥10 mm Hg); 1426 DTTH patients (48.4%) achieved normalized SBP/DBP (ie, SBP <140 mm Hg and DBP <90 mm Hg). ΔPP in DTTH‐isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) was −18.0±13.3 mm Hg (P=.003 vs DTTH‐systolic‐diastolic hypertension). End‐of‐EBT mean MMSE was 27.5±3.0 (P<.001 vs baseline). Blood pressure responses after EBT coincided with stabilization/improvement of MMSE in this retrospective investigation in DTTH patients. The average improvement in MMSE in DTTH patients was similar to that in non‐DTTH patients. EBT effects on PP may be relevant to the evolution of MMSE in DTTH‐ISH patients