一項最新研究顯示：高血壓前期患者心臟病發作和患心臟病的風險遠遠高于以前的預期。2005年8月《腦卒中》期刊報道了這些結果。

正常血壓低于120/80mmHg。高血壓前期被定義為收縮期血壓在120至139和/或者舒張期血壓在80至89mmHg之間。 高血壓至血壓在140/90mmHg或者更高的水平。

研究人員檢查了Framingham研究的現存資料，發現高血壓前期的患者比血壓正常的人，心臟病發作的風險高出3倍之多，患心臟病的風險高出1.7倍。但是，研究人員沒有發現這些高血壓前期患者的患腦卒中的發現有顯著性增加。

美國新澤西醫學與口腔學大學腦血管項目教授和主任、首席作者Adnan I. Querishi博士指出：“在這個灰色區域的不同影響，或許由血壓之外的因素介導的，例如胰島素抵抗。”

直到目前這項研究為止，醫生以及大眾對“高血壓前期”意味著什么都知之甚少。美國國家委員會首次描述了正常血壓與高血壓之間這個灰色區域的危害。

Quershi博士指出：“如果我們能夠排除高血壓前期，我們就能夠防止大約47％的心臟病發作。”

Prehypertension Triples Heart Risk
 
A new study has revealed that people with prehypertension are at much higher risk of heart attack and heart disease than previously thought. The results were reported in the August 2005 issue of Stroke.

Normal blood pressure is lower than 120/80 mm Hg. Prehypertension is defined as systolic blood pressure between 120 and 139 and/or diastolic pressure between 80 and 89 mm Hg. Hypertension is blood pressure that is 140/90 mm Hg or higher.

Researchers examined existing data from the Framingham Study and found that a prehypertensive person is more than three times likely to have a heart attack than a person with normal pressure and 1.7 times more likely to have heart disease. However, they did not find a significant increase in the risk of stroke among people with prehypertension.

“The differential effect in this gray zone may be mediated through factors other than blood pressure, such as insulin resistance,” observed lead author Adnan I. Quershi, M.D., professor and director of the cerebrovascular program at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (Newark, USA).

Until the current study, doctors and the public knew very little about what the term “prehypertension” meant. It was coined by a U.S. national committee to describe the gray area between normal blood pressure and hypertension.

"If we were to eliminate prehypertension, we could potentially prevent about 47% of all heart attacks,” said Dr. Quershi.