”hypertension treatment in blacks doesn’t seem to work quite as well as in other ethnic groups”

Emobileclinic Health News 

Blacks and Hispanics are said to be at high risks of intracerebral hemorrhage if hypertension is left untreated said researchers at the International Stroke Conference held last week Thursday during American Stroke Association annual meeting. 

 Hypertension increases the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage, and that risk appears to be greater in blacks and Hispanics, the researchers reported.

The researchers in the study observed 2323 people previously diagnosed of  intracerebral stroke and matched them with others for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographic area.It was discovered that  those who were untreated for hypertension were at a greater risk of brain bleeding than treated patients: the risk was 9.5 times greater in whites when compared to the treated population; 9.7 times greater in Hispanics; and 11.1 times greater in blacks, reported by lead author Opeolu Adeoye, MD, an associate professor of emergency medicine and neurosurgery at the University of Cincinnatim

“Obviously, high blood pressure is a big risk factor for stroke in general,” Dr. Adeoye told the Neurology Today Conference Reporter. “There appears to be an interaction between race and ethnicity in the risk that is conferred by treated and untreated hypertension. However, we haven’t yet been able to tease out what those differences are,” he said. Apart from this he equally reported that high blood pressure was high in Blacks and Hispanics even with treatment -’75 percent and 50 percent, respectively, there is higher odds of having a brain bleed compared with whites, he said.  “Even when people are treated, the response to treatment and the ability to get blood pressure under control seem to differ by racial or ethnic group,”  “I don’t think it can all be left up to behavioral modifiable factors,” he said. 

Dr.Adeoye said the the interaction and variations among race, ethnicity remain true using all parameters.  “Race and ethnicity has something to do with outcomes in hypertension aside from socioeconomic status,” Dr. Adeoye said. “We know that hypertension treatment in blacks doesn’t seem to work quite as well as in other ethnic groups. We know that there seems to be less hypertension prevalence among Hispanics, but they are also less likely to be treated. So there are probably multiple factors involved, some of which involve genetics and some of which are cultural and sociodemographic. But all of it speaks to the need for a concerted effort to target populations that are currently undertreated for their hypertension.” he explained. 

Expressing his opinion on the study, Kyra J. Becker, MD, a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Washington in Seattle, said: “Certainly there are subtle genetic variations among ethnic and racial groups that may impact how hypertension occurs and affects people. But we don’t yet completely understand those mechanisms that cause the differences among these groups.” Adeoye is of the opinion that drugs should be produced in this line of observation rather than the try and error method. “The current approach is to come into the office and ask patients ‘to try this.’ Perhaps studies in high blood pressure should be targeted at the likelihood of response based on genetic predisposition or ability to respond to a given therapy. We need future studies that can investigate these questions. The hope is that personalized medicine will help provide some answers. But for now we can just point out where those differences are,” he said.