Mexican Americans and women may be at higher risk for subarachnoid hemorrhage, a type of stroke involving bleeding in the space around the brain, according to a study published in the June 11, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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.

Adults who were placed in a private, enhanced foster care program as teenagers appear to have significantly fewer mental disorders, ulcers and cardiometabolic problems (diabetes, hypertension or heart disease) but more respiratory disorders than those who were placed in public programs, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

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.

Two new clinical trials presented by Calpis Co., Ltd. at the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) Twenty-Third Annual Scientific Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2008) in New Orleans show that the milk-derived dietary supplement AmealPeptide® reduces blood pressure in hypertensive patients.

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.

University of Florida researchers have identified a drug compound that dramatically lowers blood pressure, improves heart function and — in a remarkable finding — prevents damage to the heart and kidneys in rats with persistent hypertension.

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.