Importancia de la presión arterial diastólica en relación con la edad

Brachial diastolic blood pressure (DBP), in relation to brachial systolic blood pressure (SBP), is a useful marker of central blood pressure (BP) because it is not distorted by pressure amplification. Discordantly low DBP may be an early marker of increased cardiac output/stroke volume and/or arterial stiffness in young adults and a late marker of ventricular-arterial stiffness in the elderly. Discordantly elevated DBP at any age is a marker of increased peripheral vascular resistance -typical of essential hypertension in adolescents and young adults- and when severely elevated suggestive of urgent/emergent and secondary causes of hypertension, especially in the elderly. Very severe diastolic hypertension should raise a "red flag", both for prompt diagnosis and for aggressive and effective antihypertensive therapy.