Borderline High Blood Pressure Linked to Heart, Vessel Damage

CHICAGO —  Borderline high blood pressure--even if it isn’t high enough to concern most doctors--can lead to heart and blood vessel damage, increasing the chance of heart attack, a new study has found.

“I think what we can conclude from this study is that a condition that clinical practitioners tend to ignore . . . can really lead to much more serious problems,” said the chief author, Dr. Stevo Julius, chief of the division of hypertension at the University of Michigan.

The study was published in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

Researchers studied nearly 1,000 people between ages 18 and 38 in Tecumseh, Mich. Of those studied, 124 had borderline high blood pressure and also displayed slight damage to heart and blood vessels.

A consistent reading of 90 or higher for diastolic pressure, the lower of the two blood pressure readings, indicates hypertension, according to the National High Blood Pressure Education Program. Many doctors consider a diastolic reading of 95 the threshhold for the disease.

Systolic pressure readings consistently above 140 or 150 are generally considered too high.

The study suggests that doctors need to re-examine the way they treat patients with borderline high blood pressure, Julius said.

“Today the practice is to wait until a patient already has developed hypertension and then treat it (with drugs),” Julius said. “But high blood pressure is really only part of the problem.”

Julius said doctors should prescribe exercise and dieting for people with borderline high blood pressure who are also overweight--another symptom that usually precedes heart problems.

“These people who we tend to disregard seem to have other problems as well,” he said. “We need to look at ways to treat them without committing these people to pills.”