More intensive blood pressure treatment may prevent strokes in older people

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Scientists from California Northstate University found that more intensive high blood pressure treatment may be helpful for preventing or delaying strokes in older people.

The research is published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and was conducted by Vanessa S. Ho et al.

In the study, the team examined 38,779 adults with an average age ranging from 66 to 84 years and follow-up times ranging from 2 to 6 years.

They found that it took 1.7 years to prevent 1 stroke for 200 older persons treated with more intensive hypertension treatment.

For older adults with baseline systolic blood pressures below 150 mmHg, the time to benefit of more intensive hypertension treatment was longer than 1.7 years.

For older adults with baseline systolic blood pressure above 190 mmHg, the time to benefit was shorter than 1.7 years.

The team says the 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines recommends individual risk discussions about high blood pressure treatment for primary prevention in older adults.

But there is a critical gap in data about how long a patient needs to receive blood pressure treatment before they will benefit—or the blood pressure treatment’s time to benefit.

A treatment’s time to benefit is an especially important consideration for patients with a limited life expectancy who may experience immediate burdens or harm from any additional medication.

If you care about stroke, please read studies about combo therapy that can cut risk of heart attack and stroke by half, and how could it be a stroke, mom asked – ‘she’s only 8’.

For more information about stroke, please see recent studies about after heart attack, mini-stroke and stroke, survivor has some advice, and results show this cholesterol in body can accurately predict heart attack and stroke.

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