Anneloes Vlek studied the consequences of high blood pressure in patients with established manifest vascular disease.
It shows that patients with vascular disease and the metabolic syndrome are clearly at higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the future than patients who do not have metabolic syndrome. Raised blood pressure was also related to accelerated deterioration of renal function in this group of patients. However, Vlek did not find a connection between high blood pressure and white matter abnormalities or between blood pressure and the progression of brain atrophy.
The incidence of vascular risk factors in those patients referred for vascular disease has decreased over the past twelve years, while the incidence of obesity in this group has increased greatly. Despite this improvement, the prevalence of vascular risk factors in this patient group is still high.
Anneloes Vlek will receive her PhD from Utrecht University on 26 May.