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Article: Blood pressure: questioning a maxim.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- August 19, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Blood Pressure: Questioning a Maxim
In treating patients with high blood pressure, doctors routinely follow the maxim "the lower the better." Now some new research calls that practice into question. In a study of people with mild to moderate hypertension, epidemiologists found that when drug treatment caused a large drop in blood pressure, a person's risk of heart attack was nearly four times that of patients with more moderate decreases.
Patients with very small blood pressure reductions, indicating ineffective treatment, also suffered more heart attacks -- about three times more than those with moderate changes. The trend in stroke rates resembled ...