Central blood pressure and its application in cardiology in aerospace medicine

Central blood pressure reflects the pressure at the root of aorta. Growing evidence showed central blood pressure is better than brachial pressure in predicting cardiovascular events. The difference between these decreases with older age. In addition, antihypertensive drugs have different effects on brachial and central blood pressure. Therefore, making decisions based on central blood pressure rather than brachial pressure is of great significance for the diagnosis and prevention of hypertension in young aircrew in the future. The cardiovascular requirements in flight environment for aircrew are stricter than that for ordinary people. Due to increasing training intensity, traditional blood pressure assessment exposed many shortcomings. Central blood pressure may play an important role in accurate assessment of flight risk in future.