Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have found that rare mutations in three genes contribute to blood pressure variation in the general population.

Autopsy data of 221 men and women found that the brains of one-third of individuals who had dementia before death showed evidence of small, cumulative blood vessel damage that can arise from hypertension or diabetes.

Dutch medical researcher Christiaan Tji-Joong Gan has established that patients with a high blood pressure in the lungs die because the right ventricle is not capable of pumping blood against this pressure. Further, the right ventricle needs a longer rest phase between each pumping phase. Gan is the first Mosaic laureate to gain his doctorate.

An international blood pressure study comparing two single-pill drug combinations has yielded results so significant that the study has been stopped early – and the researchers say their findings might alter the way high blood pressure is treated worldwide.

Lowering the blood pressure of elderly patients could cut their total mortality by a fifth and their rate of cardiovascular events by a third, according to a new study presented today (Monday 31 March) at the American College of Cardiology in Chicago and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Adding the relaxation response, a stress-management approach, to other lifestyle interventions may significantly improve treatment of the type of hypertension most common in the elderly.

Adults with hypertension may be able to lower their weight and their blood pressure by following a weight-loss diet or using the medication orlistat, according to a meta-analysis of previously published studies reported in the March 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Individuals who have one or two parents with hypertension appear to have a significantly increased risk of developing elevated blood pressure throughout their adult lives, according to a report in the March 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Transcendental Meditation is an effective treatment for controlling high blood pressure with the added benefit of bypassing possible side effects and hazards of anti-hypertension drugs, according to a new meta-analysis conducted at the University of Kentucky.

Black people are more likely to lose vision as a result of idiopathic intracranial hypertension, or increased pressure in the brain, according to a study published in the March 11, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Combination therapy of Prostacyclin, Sildenafil, and Bosentan helped a young male patient with severe portopulmonary hypertension improve enough to receive a liver transplant. It was also used post-transplant to help him maintain his health. These findings are published in the March issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal by John Wiley & Sons.

A protein that is an early indicator of kidney dysfunction in adults may predict hypertension in black adolescents, Medical College of Georgia researchers have found.