Elevated Blood Pressure in the Acute Phase of Stroke and the Role of Angiotensin Receptor Blockers

Table 3

Patients characteristics at enrollment.

Study	ACCESS [27]	PRoFESS [28]*	SCATS [29]
	treatment/placebo	treatment/placebo	treatment/placebo
Number of patients	173/166	647/713	1017/1012
Age	68.3 (9.3)/67.8 (9.4)	66.8 (8.8)/67.1 (9.2)	70.8 (11.2)/71.0 (11.0)
Male (%)	86 (49.7)/86 (51.8)	420 (64.9)/464 (65.1)	612 (60.2)/564 (55.7)
Clinical history
Previous stroke/TIA	NA	160 (24.7)/184 (25.8)	252 (24.8)/204 (20.2)
Atrial fibrillation	NA	10 (1.6)/14 (2.0)	190 (18.7)/186 (18.4)
Hypertension	NA	453 (70.0)/503 (70.6)	676 (66.5)/670 (66.2)
Diabetes mellitus	67 (38.7)/58 (35.0)	176 (27.2)/198 (27.8)	163 (16.0)/157 (15.5)
Hyperlipidemia	74 (42.8)/75 (45.2)	264 (40.8)/283 (39.7)	NA
Ischemic heart disease	38 (22)/32 (19.3)	95 (14.7)/104 (14.6)	NA
Time from stroke (hours)	29.9/29.7	57.6 (16.8)/57.6 (16.8)	17.6 (8.1)/17.9 (8.1)
Blood pressure (mmHg)
Systolic	188 (20.9)/190 (19.7)	146 (16.2)/147 (16.3)	171.2 (19.0)/171.6 (19.2)
Diastolic	99 (14.9)/99 (13.0)	84 (10.1)/84 (10.2)	90.3 (13.9)/90.6 (14.2)
Clinical severity	60.0 (30.2)/64.1 (27.5) at BI	2.9 (2.8)/3.1 (2.9) at NIHSS	40.6 (12.3)/40.5 (12.6) at SSS

∗In the PRoFESS trial a subgroup analysis has been considered.
Data are n (%) or mean (SD). NA: not assessed. BI: Barthel Index; mRS: modified ranking scale; NIHSS: National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; SSS: Scandinavian stroke scale.