Thursday, April 26, 2012

Blood pressure breakthrough

I wish someone would explain why blood pressure is so important to prevent stroke when 85% of strokes are clots. But hey why should I know or care about it.
http://www.fox23news.com/content/healthalert/story/Blood-pressure-breakthrough/B9aR_F3_0U2F-zX9e4x2SQ.cspx
One in three adults have it.  And if left untreated, it can become a ticking time bomb. leading to heart disease, stroke or kidney failure.
It's high blood pressure. Something Caroline Lee wants to avoid.
"I'd like to think that I'm really active," Caroline said.
Caroline gets her blood pressure checked regularly, but now she can get an even better reading by testing what's happening in the large arteries close to her heart, known as central blood pressure. Normally, blood pressure is measured with a cuff in the upper arm for convenience, but recent studies show brachial blood pressure is not as accurate as central blood pressure for measuring your risk for disease.
 "Based on the change of your central pressure, you can find out what your risk of having heart disease are," Dr. Nicole Weinberg said.
 Being able to measure blood pressure in the aorta which is closer to the heart and brain is important because this is where high blood pressure can cause significant damage. Until now it could only be measured directly by surgically placing a catheter or pressure sensor into the aorta. But this new FDA approved machine, the Sphygmocor , is changing that. a sensor the size of a pen is pressed at the wrist.
"And through the pressure from your heart in the radial artery we are able to measure what the central pressures are," the doctor said.
In minutes, doctors can recommend either life style changes or drug therapy. As for Caroline.
 "I don't know exactly what it means to have 30 year old arteries, but I'm pretty happy about it," Caroline said.
Now she can get back to her active lifestyle.

1 comment:

  1. my vitals were perfect the entire time, i always had perfect blood pressure

    ReplyDelete