Blood pressure and intensive treatment up‐titration after acute heart failure hospitalization: Insights from the STRONG‐HF trial

Aims A high‐intensity care (HIC) strategy with rapid guideline‐directed medical therapy (GDMT) up‐titration and close follow‐up visits improved outcomes, compared to usual care (UC), in patients recently hospitalized for acute heart failure (AHF). Hypotension is a major limitation to GDMT implementation. We aimed to assess the impact of baseline systolic blood pressure (SBP) on the effects of HIC versus UC and the role of early SBP changes in STRONG‐HF. Methods and results A total of 1075 patients hospitalized for AHF with SBP ≥100 mmHg were included in STRONG‐HF. For the purpose of this post‐hoc analysis, patients were stratified by tertiles of baseline SBP (