According to a recent American Heart Association (AHA) Rapid Access Journal Report in the Hypertension journal, tracking patients' systolic blood pressure beginning at middle age may be a more accurate approach for predicting stroke and death risk.
High blood pressure causes a variety of health problems and diseases, and it results in an increased risk of death. This is why it is important for researchers to better understand these patterns, as they want to improve their prevention efforts for high blood pressure.
“We already know that high blood pressure is the biggest risk factor for stroke, and that in people aged 50 to 75, it can change in a couple years’ time,” M. Arfan Ikram, senior study author, said. “Yet, most studies looking at the relationship between high blood pressure and stroke have relied on a blood pressure measurement at a single point in time, rather than looking at the course of blood pressure and stroke risk.”
Even though long-term patterns of high blood pressure do have health consequences, there are still serious concerns for dramatic rises in a person’s blood pressure over a few years.
“Blood pressure should be measured regularly because it can change markedly over the course of a couple years and put you at high risk for an adverse event,” Ikram said. “Since the risk of stroke and death differ across these trajectory paths, they are potentially important for preventive strategies.”
