High Blood Pressure - NMR

[Guest guest]

Hypertension

may be inflammatory disease study

Dec 11 (Reuters) - A study of more than

20,000 women provides evidence that high blood pressure in part may be

an inflammatory disease, a finding that could provide new avenues for

treatment, researchers said on Tuesday.

The report from Boston's Brigham and

Women's Hospital said the conclusion was based on a blood protein that

is a marker for inflammation and that appears to be a predictor of high

blood pressure.

"Besides some long-

established lifestyle and dietary risk factors, little else is known

about how to identify individuals at risk for developing high blood

pressure," said Dr. Sesso, lead author of the study published in

this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

"This has made primary prevention

efforts difficult. The data from this study are exciting as they

represent the first major demonstration that C-reactive protein levels

may help us predict the risk of developing hypertension," Sesso added.

Increased levels of the protein are

associated with chronic activation of the immune system, otherwise

known as an inflammatory response.

The researchers monitored 20,525 women

aged 45 or older for high blood pressure over eight years. Those who

had high levels of the protein at the start had a 52 percent higher

risk of developing hypertension, the study found.

"This significant increase in risk was

present even among those with very low levels of blood pressure when

they entered the study, and was also seen among healthier women without

many traditional coronary risk factors," Sesso said.

The article said that researchers

already have found that inflammation plays a crucial role in the

development of heart disease and that inflammation can be measured

easily with a simple and inexpensive blood test for the telltale

protein.

"We already know that (the protein) is a

stronger predictor of heart attack risk than cholesterol," said

Ridker, another author.

"The current data linking (it) to the

development of high blood pressure tells us that inflammation may play

a major role in the development of vascular disease throughout the

body. If we can predict and prevent the onset of high blood pressure,

then we will be well on our way toward the prevention of stroke," he

said."

The next step, Ridker added, was "to

find out whether therapies targeting inflammation itself can be used to

reduce the risk of these devastating events."

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical

Association, December 10, 2003.