Contributed by Tom Harrison| 05 August, 2005 00:26 GMT
'These findings raise the question of whether we should treat prehypertensive patients more aggressively,' says the study's lead author.
People who have blood pressure that is above normal but too low to warrant a hypertension diagnosis are three times more likely than those with lower readings to have a heart attack, according to a study published in
Stroke, a journal of the
American Heart Association.
More than a year ago, a national committee coined the term "prehypertension" for this gray area.
But, until this study, physicians and the public knew little about what this term meant, says lead author Adnan I. Qureshi, MD, professor and director of the Cerebrovascular Program in the Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Research Center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.
47% of Heart Attacks
About 59 million people in the United States are prehypertensive.
"If we were to eliminate prehypertension, we could potentially prevent about 47 percent of all heart attacks," Dr. Qureshi maintains.
Normal blood pressure is 120/80 -- that is, systolic blood pressure lower than 120 and diastolic pressure lower than 80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). Systolic pressure is the force in the arteries when the heart beats and diastolic pressure is the force when the heart is at rest.
Prehypertension is systolic blood pressure between 120 and 139 and/or diastolic pressure between 80 and 89 mm Hg.
Hypertension is blood pressure 140/90 mm Hg or higher.
Treat Prehypertension More Aggressively?
Researchers examined existing data from the Framingham Study and found that a prehypertensive person is more than three times more likely to have a heart attack and 1.7 times more likely to have heart disease than a person with normal blood pressure.
They did not find a significantly increased risk of stroke among those with prehypertension.
"This is somewhat surprising, but it may be related to the small number of stroke events in the study. The differential effect in this gray zone may be mediated through factors other than blood pressure, such as insulin resistance," Qureshi points out.
"While we classically recommend lifestyle modifications -- such as weight control, regular physical activity and changes in diet -- for people with prehypertension," he notes, "these findings raise the question of whether we should treat prehypertensive patients more aggressively." |
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