A new injected drug that treats high blood pressure has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

A new article indicates that an increased intake in minerals such as potassium, and possibly magnesium and calcium by dietary means may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and decrease blood pressure in people with hypertension.

Many of the 75 million Americans with essential hypertension also develop diabetes and other complications in addition to their high blood pressure, and researchers have discovered a common molecular mechanism in a strain of rat that explains why such metabolic disorders arise together in mammals.

Resistant hypertension, blood pressure that remains above goal despite taking three antihypertensive medications or high blood pressure that is controlled but requires four or more medications to do so, may benefit from specialized diagnostic and therapeutic treatment by health care providers according to guidelines issued by the American Heart Association and co-authored by UAB physicians.

Bleeding from ruptured esophageal varices is the main complication of portal hypertension and a major cause of death. About one-third of variceal bleeding episodes are fatal while 70% of survivors re-bleed within a year.

Scientists at the Center for Translational Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have found that a protein that appears to have protective and perhaps healing effects for failing hearts also plays a similar role in high blood pressure. They found lower-than-normal levels of the protein S100A1 in cells that line blood vessel walls in animals with high blood pressure.

The best available treatment for chronic kidney disease from high blood pressure did not keep the disease from substantially worsening in about a fourth of African-Americans studied, according to long-term results of a National Institutes of Health study published April 28, 2008, in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Despite the well-known dangers of high blood pressure, major shortfalls still exist in the screening, treatment and control of the disease even when patients are getting a doctor's care, according to a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

People with high blood pressure appear to be less likely to have migraine than those with low blood pressure. Researchers say stiff arteries associated with high blood pressure may play a role in protecting against migraine. The research is published in the April 15, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

A large, randomized drug trial has shown for the first time that statin drugs result in a modest, but significant, reduction in blood pressure. These effects may contribute to the reduced risk of stroke and cardiovascular events reported for patients on statins, according to lead investigator Beatrice Golomb, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and director of UC San Diego’s Statin Study.

The medications known as statins, typically prescribed to lower blood cholesterol levels, may also modestly reduce blood pressure, according to a report in the April 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

For the first time, the American Heart Association has issued guidelines to help patients and healthcare providers tackle resistant high blood pressure that seems to defy treatment.