* News * Education * Research Blood pressure variations key indicator of stroke risk, research says

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Variations in blood pressure are better ways to predict the risk of stroke than high average readings and are also important indicators of vulnerability to heart attacks, heart failure and angina, research has concluded.

The study, led by Professor Peter Rothwell, of the University of Oxford, examined the ways in which blood pressure variability affected stroke risk in four large groups of participants in previous international trials.

"Raised blood pressure, or hypertension, accounts for over 50% of the risk of stroke and other vascular events in the population," he said.

"We have shown that it is variations in people's blood pressure, rather than the average level, that predicts stroke most powerfully.

"Occasional high values, and what might be called episodic hypertension, carry a high risk of stroke. Previously, such fluctuations were considered to be benign and uninformative."

The Stroke Association has called for clinical guidelines for treating patients to be reviewed because no special importance is currently attached to blood pressure.

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"Occasional high values, and what might be called episodic hypertension, carry a high risk of stroke. Previously, such fluctuations were considered to be benign and uninformative."

Yup.