Many stroke patients lack hypertension treatment

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Although there is evidence that
stroke patients with high or even normal blood pressure can
benefit from drug therapy to lower their blood pressure
(antihypertensive therapy) at hospital discharge, a large
number of patients do not receive these drugs, new research
suggests.

The findings also reveal great variability among hospitals
in antihypertensive prescription rates for stroke patients,
according to the report published in the medical journal
Stroke.

“There should be a concerted effort, involving patients and
their doctors, to make sure that patients do not leave the
hospital without being on at least one blood pressure agent to
reduce their risk for secondary stroke,” lead author Dr. Bruce
Ovbiagele, from the University of California at Los Angeles,
said in a statement.

The study involved an analysis of data from 764 consecutive
patients who were logged in the California Acute Stroke
Prototype Registry between 2002 and 2004. The subjects had been
treated at 1 of 11 California hospitals for a stroke or a
transient ischemic attack – a mild stroke that leaves the
patient without disability.

About 30 percent of subjects were discharged without
receiving a prescription for at least one antihypertensive
drug. The antihypertensive prescription rates ranged from 55
percent to 100 percent among the hospitals studied.

High blood pressure, diabetes, and older age all increased
the odds that an antihypertensive agent would be prescribed at
discharge, the authors note.

The short-term risk of having another stroke is high. “That
makes it even more important to be sure that patients are put
on proven therapies for preventing a recurrent event,”
Ovbiagele added.

SOURCE: Stroke 2005.