Higher Blood Pressure Better for Congestive Heart Failure

Ivanhoe Newswire
Wednesday, November 8, 2006; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- It's counterintuitive, but higher blood pressure readings may actually lead to a decreased risk of death among people with congestive heart failure (CHF).

According to a team of investigators led by Mihai Gheorghiade, M.D., from Northwestern University in Chicago, the risk of death for CHF patients who are admitted to the hospital drops as systolic blood pressure -- typically the first number in the blood pressure reading -- rises.

They analyzed the link between systolic blood pressure and CHF death rates in a large group of people taking part in a heart failure study. Those with low systolic pressures (less than 120 millimeters of mercury) had a 7.2-percent death rate. That figure went down to 3.6 percent for those with readings between 120 and 139, to 2.5 percent for those coming in between 140 and 161, and to 1.7 percent for those with readings over 161.

Overall, more than half of the people in the study had systolic blood pressure readings of more than 140 upon admission to the hospital.

The investigators believe systolic blood pressure can be used to guide treatment for CHF patients and urge greater use of this simple test to gauge CHF progress.

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SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, published online Nov. 8, 2006