Byrne C, Pareek M, Vaduganathan M, et al. - Findings of the SPRINT (Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial) trial revealed absence of an independent association of either baseline or on-treatment serum potassium (s-potassium) levels with death among high-risk patients with hypertension. The risks related to abnormal s-potassium may be eliminated with careful monitoring of patients on antihypertensive medications.

• This is a randomized, controlled trial of 9,361 high-risk patients aged ≥50 years without diabetes, assigned to intensive vs standard blood pressure (BP) control.

• The intensive group had lower on-treatment s-potassium, and a linear association of baseline s-potassium with both types of death events (all-cause and cardiovascular deaths) was evident.

• On-treatment potassium showed a linear link with all-cause death but not with cardiovascular death.

• Following multivariable adjustment, none of the links continued to be significant.

• In addition, s-potassium did not alter the impact of intensive BP control.