Having high blood pressure has been shown to increase the risk of having a stroke. Now a new study led by Michigan Medicine published in JAMA Network Open has linked the cumulative effects of years of having high systolic blood pressure during adulthood to a greater risk for two of the most common types of strokes: ischemic and intracerebral hemorrhage.
This study investigated three types of strokes: ischemic stroke, which is when a clot cuts the blood supply to the brain and is the cause of over 85% of all strokes; intracerebral hemorrhage, which is a bleed within the brain; and subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is bleeding between the brain and the tissues that cover it.
The researchers analyzed the average systolic blood pressure from over 40,000 people 18 years or older with no history of stroke, years ahead of their first stroke. The analysis revealed that having a mean systolic blood pressure that is 10-mm Hg higher than average was associated with a 20% higher risk of overall stroke and ischemic stroke, as well as a 31% greater risk of intracerebral hemorrhage.
While Black and Hispanic patients had a higher risk of stroke, researchers found little evidence to suggest that race and ethnicity affected the association between cumulative systolic blood pressure and the type of stroke that affected any patient. Black patients were found to have a 20% higher risk of ischemic stroke and a 67% higher risk of intracerebral hemorrhage than White patients. Hispanic patients were found to have a 281% higher risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage, but not any other stroke type, compared to White patients.
“Our results suggest that early diagnosis and sustained control of high blood pressure over the lifespan are critical to preventing stroke, ischemic stroke, and intracerebral hemorrhage, especially in Black and Hispanic patients who are more likely to have uncontrolled hypertension than white patients,” said senior author Deborah A. Levine, M.D., M.P.H., professor of internal medicine and neurology at University of Michigan Medical School.
“Examining racial inequities advances our understanding of the social, economic, and political structures that affect health behaviors and risk for stroke among racial and ethnic minority groups,” said Kimson E. Johnson, Ph.D., M.A., M.S.W., first author and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan.
“Two major barriers to self-monitoring of blood pressure are lack of patient education and insurance not covering the home blood pressure monitors, which cost $50 or more,” said Levine. “Health care systems and providers must educate and urge their patients to do home blood pressure monitoring, and insurers must pay for home blood pressure monitors to optimize people’s blood pressure and reduce their chances of having a stroke.”
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References/Sources/Materials provided by:
https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/blood-pressure-high-years-beware-stroke-risk
