
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 18, 1990                   TAG: 9007180187
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MILD BLOOD PRESSURE RISES REPORTEDLY RISKY

Above-normal blood pressure, even if it is not high enough to qualify as hypertension, can permanently damage heart and blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attack, a new study says.

"Mild elevations of blood pressure are not as innocuous as we used to think," said the principal author of the study, Dr. Stevo Julius, chief of the division of hypertension at the University of Michigan.

"We found that even at blood pressures today not considered deserving of treatment, some patients are having organ damage. Most of these patients are not being managed seriously."

He and other experts said the findings suggested that people with borderline hypertension should be followed more closely and treated more aggressively than is customary now.

- The New York Times

by CNB