The SPRINT study, sponsored by The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, has been a landmark work which affirmed the value of keeping systolic pressure at a lower level through intensive treatment. SPRINT is the acronym for Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial that compared the benefit of maintaining systolic blood pressure < 120 mm Hg with treatment for < 140 mm Hg.
SPRINT study enrolled 9361 participants above 50 years with high blood pressure (130 to 180 mm Hg), but without diabetes, between 2010 through 2013. SPRINT was a randomized, controlled, open-label trial that compared the study outcomes between the standard-treatment group (systolic blood-pressure target < 140 mm Hg) and the intensive-treatment group (systolic blood pressure target < 120 mm Hg).
A committee of professionals, unaware of the study-group assignments, judged the medical outcomes of the participants. The primary composite outcome was myocardial infarction, other acute coronary syndromes, stroke, heart failure, or death from cardiovascular causes. Secondary outcomes included the individual components of the primary composite outcome, death from any cause, and the composite of the primary outcome or death from any cause.
The results
Key results are summarised below
| Outcome | Intensive Treatment (N = 4678) | Standard Treatment (N = 4683) | Hazard Ratio | p-value |
| Primary outcome | 243 | 319 | 0.75 | <0.001 |
| Death from cardiovascular causes | 37 | 65 | 0.57 | 0.005 |
| Myocardial infarction | 97 | 116 | 0.78 | 0.19 |
| Stroke | 62 | 70 | 0.47 | 0.5 |
| Death from any cause | 155 | 210 | 0.73 | 0.003 |
Reference
A Randomized Trial of Intensive versus Standard Blood-Pressure Control: NEJM
