8 March 2004
High blood pressure is a poor predictor of heart disease
From:
The Journal of
Medical Screening published by RSM
Press
Blood pressure screening either alone or in combination with other cardiovascular risk factors such as cholesterol levels does not determine a person’s chance of having a heart attack or stroke, reports Professor Malcolm Law and colleagues at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Screening. Although high blood pressure is a proven cause of heart disease and stroke, the authors claim that most heart attacks and strokes occur in people who do not have high levels of blood pressure. Pre-treatment blood pressure measurements identify people who will not suffer from heart disease in addition to those who will.
History of heart disease is best indicator
'Identifying patients at the time of hospital discharge following a heart
attack or stroke is the most effective screening test to distinguish those who
will die of cardiovascular disease,' write the authors. This is supported
by the fact that about 50% of deaths caused by heart disease occur in people
who have already had a heart attack.
All people over 55 are at higher risk
We already know that lowering blood pressure decreases
the risk of heart attack and stroke, regardless of
the patient's existing level of blood pressure, the
article states. The authors conclude that preventive
treatment might as well be offered to everyone above
a specified age of 55 'rather than attempting to
discriminate between people using measurements of blood
pressure or cholesterol'.
Lower dosage reduces number of incidents
Professor Law and his colleagues also discuss recent work
which has 'shown that blood pressure lowering drugs
are in general best used at half the present standard
doses, because the resulting reduction in adverse effects
outweighs the relatively small loss of efficacy.' Using
blood pressure lowering drugs at low dose in persons
over 55 would reduce the number of heart attacks by 46%
and stroke by 63%.
[ends]
Read the full article [PDF 60k]
