Impact of antihypertensive agents on arterial stiffness in hypertensive patients

Aims: The present network meta-analysis was performed to comprehensively compare the ability of different types of antihypertensive agents to ameliorate arterial stiffness in hypertensive patients. Methods and results: To conduct this network meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, the Embase database, and the https://clinicaltrials.gov/ website for all relevant articles concerning clinical trials on hypertension therapy. The last search date was 10 August 2017. As a result. 28 eligible articles were enrolled in our meta-analysis. According to the included studies, there was no significant difference in pulse wave velocity (PWV) between these treatments. The eight types of antihypertension agents outperformed placebo in controlling systolic blood pressure (SBP). Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) outperformed angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) in SBP; and angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) outperformed diuretic (D) in SBP. Conclusions: This study found that the eight antihypertensive agents show obvious effect on reducing SBP other than arterial stiffness. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.