Thursday, May 29, 2014

More news on blood pressure and stroke

High blood pressure is a well-known stroke risk factor.

Now, it's important for patients whose blood pressure moves around between doctor visits should seriously explore blood pressure control. A recent report links variable blood pressure to stroke and other risk:
When comparing the highest versus the lowest levels of between-visit variability in systolic blood pressure readings, there were greater risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, hospitalization for heart failure, and all-cause death through a maximum of 5.7 years of follow-up, according to Paul Muntner, PhD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health.
The findings were consistent across various subgroups, including in both patients who were and were not at their blood pressure goals, he reported at the American Society of Hypertension meeting here.
"The key thing is that blood pressure variability has been known about for a long time, but it's just been ignored as a challenge to properly measuring blood pressure," Muntner told MedPage Today. "And I think data over the past 5 years similar to these have begun to accumulate to suggest that it has prognostic importance."

1 comment:

Rebecca Dutton said...

I had variable blood pressure before my stroke. I wish my doctor had treated it before it was too late.