Prehypertension Triples Heart Risk

A new study has revealed that people with prehypertension are at much higher risk of heart attack and heart disease than previously thought. The results were reported in the August 2005 issue of Stroke.

Normal blood pressure is lower than 120/80 mm Hg. Prehypertension is defined as systolic blood pressure between 120 and 139 and/or diastolic pressure between 80 and 89 mm Hg. Hypertension is blood pressure that is 140/90 mm Hg or higher.

Researchers examined existing data from the Framingham Study and found that a prehypertensive person is more than three times likely to have a heart attack than a person with normal pressure and 1.7 times more likely to have heart disease. However, they did not find a significant increase in the risk of stroke among people with prehypertension.

"The differential effect in this gray zone may be mediated through factors other than blood pressure, such as insulin resistance,” observed lead author Adnan I. Quershi, M.D., professor and director of the cerebrovascular program at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (Newark, USA).

Until the current study, doctors and the public knew very little about what the term "prehypertension” meant. It was coined by a U.S. national committee to describe the gray area between normal blood pressure and hypertension.

If we were to eliminate prehypertension, we could potentially prevent about 47% of all heart attacks,” said Dr. Quershi.