People with Fluctuating Blood Pressure Readings at Increased Risk of Stroke

It appears that those people who have a wide margin when it comes to their blood pressure could be at increased risk of stroke.

Results of a new study suggest that people with consistently high blood pressure may actually be at less of a risk of stroke than those people whose blood pressure tends to fluctuate.

The study followed up to 2000 patients who had experienced a mini stroke, and compared their blood pressure readings from health data acquired from other studies.

The researchers were able to distinguish a dangerous pattern that put people at increased risk of a second larger stroke.

”We have shown that it is variations in people’s blood pressure rather than the average level that predicts stroke most powerfully,” says study lead author Peter Rothwell, MD, professor of clinical neurology at the Stroke Prevention Research Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England.

Researchers stress the importance for doctors not to ignore high blood pressure readings in patients, and to advise patients on ways to keep their blood pressure numbers down.

The study can be found in the journal Lancet.