High versus low blood pressure levels do not appear to affect the mortality rate for patients with septic shock, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers randomly assigned approximately 700 patients with septic shock to undergo resuscitation aimed at achieving either a high blood pressure (80 – 85 mm Hg) or low blood pressure (65 – 70 mm Hg).
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There was no significant difference in the 28-day mortality rates between the two groups. The high blood pressure group experienced a 36.6 percent mortality rate, and the low blood pressure group experienced a 34 percent mortality rate.
Additionally, the difference in 90-day mortality rates was not statistically significant, at 43.8 percent for the high blood pressure group and 42.3 percent for the low blood pressure group.
However, researchers noted atrial fibrillation was more common in the high blood pressure group than the low blood pressure group, although the association between the two "should be considered only as a hypothesis-generating concept for future trials," according to the study.
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