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Article: Blood pressure alert Doctors may be missing heart risk warning signs BY SALLY SQUIRES
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- October 1, 1999
CopyrightCopyright 1999 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON Millions of older Americans are at risk of dangerous
complications because many doctors are not properly treating high
blood pressure, the National Institutes of Health warns.
The agency plans to issue an alert to 250,000 health
professionals.
The advisory follows new findings from the long-term Framingham
Heart Study showing the dangers of not treating people with a type of
hypertension called elevated systolic high blood pressure,
traditionally expressed as the first or higher number of a blood
pressure reading, such as the "120" in the reading "120 over 80."
Until recent years, the systolic reading - produced as the heart
contracts - had often not been ...