Even slightly high blood pressure poses health risk

[Guest guest]

Even slightly high blood pressure poses health risk

NEW YORK, Oct 31 (Reuters Health) - People with blood pressure levels that

tend to be slightly elevated but still considered to be within normal

ranges--called high-normal--are at increased risk for suffering from heart

disease, according to a new study.

" Our findings emphasize the need to determine whether lowering high-normal

blood pressure can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, " writes lead

author Dr. Ramachandran S. Vasan of the Boston University School of

Medicine.

The findings, published in the November 1st issue of the New England Journal

of Medicine, could have important implications for how aggressive doctors

are in giving medications to patients whom they previously simply observed.

In the study, the team of researchers monitored blood pressure levels of

6,859 men and women. They then compared heart disease related illness in

people with high-normal blood pressure to people with high blood pressure.

Blood pressure readings are taken in two numbers. The systolic value (the

first number in a blood pressure measurement) describes the pressure in the

heart during contraction. The second number, the diastolic value, represents

the pressure when the heart is at rest between beats.

Blood pressure readings of less than 140 over 90 are considered normal,

while higher values have long been considered elevated and a risk for heart

disease. A systolic pressure of 130 to 139 or a diastolic pressure of 85 to

89 is considered to be high-normal, but the significance of these values was

unclear.

After following the patients for 10 years the researchers found that 4% of

the women and 8% of the men with high-normal blood pressure who were between

the ages of 35 and 65 had some kind of heart disease. Patients between the

ages of 65 and 90 with high-normal blood pressure had a much higher risk for

heart disease--18% of the women and 25% of the men, the study indicates.

Overall, women with high-normal blood pressure had a 2.5 times greater risk

of heart disease than did those with normal blood pressure, and men with

high-normal values had

1.6 times greater risk of heart disease than did men with normal values.

" Although our results demonstrate that high-normal blood pressure is a

marker of an elevated risk for (heart) disease, it is uncertain whether the

increased risk is attributable solely to subjects' blood pressure levels, "

the authors write.

" These findings lend further credence to the theory that high-normal blood

pressure must be categorized differently from normal or optimal blood

pressure, " writes Julio a Panza of the Washington Hospital Center, in

Washington DC in an accompanying editorial.

The finding in the current study " that high normal blood pressure is more

akin to high blood pressure than it is to normal pressure is an important

advance in our understanding of the magnitude of the problem, " he concludes.

SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine 2001;345:1291-1297