Hypertension

Researchers have recently determined two proteins or biomarkers "that occur when inflammation is present could help doctors identify which patients are more likely to have a stroke."

Researchers have found that "testing patient's blood for two proteins or biomarkers that occur when inflammation is present could help doctors identify which patients are more likely to have a stroke."

As baby boomers enter their golden years, they are facing a catch-22: while they can expect to live longer due to advances in medicine, they will also be facing situations where they will be unable to care for themselves.

A study by Peterson and colleagues used a large electronic patient database to demonstrate how patients at risk for nonfatal coronary events may be identified using reduced exercise capacity on treadmill stress testing as a parameter.

I am convinced that we essentially sabotage both our guests and ourselves when we offer only these high calorie and often totally unhealthy options time and time again.

New research from the Regional Hospital of Bolzano in Italy suggests that "pediatric obesity may induce alterations in thyroid function and structure."

Study results published in the October 2008 issue of the American Journal of Physiology � Heart and Circulatory Physiology reveal that "young African American men have greater central [blood pressure] despite comparable brachial [blood pressure] when compared with young white men."

A 77-year-old woman with diabetes, hypertension, and hypothyroidism was first assessed as an outpatient in 2004.

The incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF), which is the most frequently encountered sustained cardiac arrhythmia, is increasing in the United States.

Disparities in the care and treatment for hypertension contributes to the deaths of almost 8,000 African American men and women in the United States each year.

Two 42-year-old men with a serum cholesterol level of 225 mg/dL presented to our institution.

A 76-year-old woman with a history of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation presents to your office to discuss whether she should take warfarin (Coumadin) for stroke prevention.

Acute severe hypertension (ASH) accounts for up to 25% of all patients seen in "busy urban emergency departments."

Hypertension may well be the most important public health issue facing society today.

The AMIS (Acute Myocardial Infarction in Switzerland) Plus prospective cohort study compared treatment and in-hospital outcomes between men and women with acute coronary syndrome (N = 26,452) admitted to Swiss hospitals between 1997 and 2007. The study reached several important conclusions: women had different baseline characteristics than men at admission, were treated with different drug regimens, and were significantly less likely to undergo percutaneous coronary intervention. After adjusting for these differences, researchers found no significant difference in the rates of in-hospital mortality between men and women, except for women aged 51 to 60 years, who were more likely to die in-hospital.

We compared blood pressure control among white and African American hypertensive men in Veterans Affairs (VA) and non-VA sites, and found that the dis parity between the two ethnic groups was 40% less at VA sites. Better access to care and medications for African Americans at the VA sites may explain the difference.

The article by Rehman and colleagues (page 27) offers two important observations about the control of hypertension in African American men.

Our study aimed to clarify whether white-coat hypertension represents a transient state in the development of hypertension outside medical settings. We followed up 128 subjects with white-coat hypertension and compared their risk of progression to home hypertension with that of 649 sustained normotensive subjects. After 8 years of follow-up, subjects with white-coat hypertension had an approximately 3-fold higher risk of eventually manifesting home hypertension. We concluded that patients with white-coat hypertension should be carefully monitored.

For 50 years, hypertension has been recognized as the most significant risk factor for the development of symptomatic cardiovascular disease in Western society.

The study by Kurth and Buring consisted of a prospective analysis among nearly 40 000 women participating in the Women's Health Study.

We compared the prognosis of patients with "white-coat" hypertension (WCHT) with that of patients with "masked" hypertension (MHT). The 10-year composite risk of stroke morbidity and cardiovascular mortality for patients with WCHT was similar to the risk for patients with sustained normal blood pressure, whereas the risk was markedly increased for patients with MHT and sustained hypertension. This indicates that conventional blood pressure measurements may fail to distinguish some patients at high or low risk.

A 65-year-old man diagnosed with essential hypertension had been treated with antihypertensive medication for 2 years at his physician's office. His systolic/diastolic blood pressure in the office had been controlled at about 130/80 mm Hg with 2 antihypertensive drugs taken in the morning after breakfast. Although he does not have any cardiovascular complications, he is a smoker, is obese, and has diabetes.

A number of studies have documented the incremental predictive ability of 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring over traditional office or casual BP monitoring for predicting adverse cardiovascular events.