CRO Industry Pulse
Cholesterol/Blood Pressure Combo not Being Treated
Reuters
August 02, 2006
By Megan Rauscher
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
- A large number of adults with both high
blood pressure and high cholesterol are not receiving
treatment, a study shows.
High blood pressure, or hypertension,
and high cholesterol (a.k.a., hypercholesterolemia),
are two important modifiable risk factors for heart
and circulatory disease.
"We were surprised that, despite
well-publicized guidelines and treatments available
for hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, less than
a third are being treated for both conditions and only
one-tenth are controlled to recommended levels,"
Dr. Nathan D. Wong, director of the Heart Disease Prevention
Program at the University of California, Irvine, noted
in comments to Reuters Health.
Based on a study of 2,864 adult men
and women, he and his colleagues estimate that roughly
one-fifth (18 percent) of U.S. adults overall have both
elevated cholesterol and blood pressure; however, this
increases to approximately 50 percent in those 60 years
of age and older.
Yet, less than one-third (29 percent)
of such persons with both elevated cholesterol and blood
pressure are actually being treated, Wong and his colleagues
report in the American Journal of Cardiology.
"Worst of all," Wong said, only 9 percent
have their blood pressure and cholesterol lowered to
goal levels.
Not surprisingly, combined high blood
pressure and high cholesterol was most often seen in
adults with heart and circulatory disease, diabetes,
metabolic syndrome -- a cluster of heart disease and
diabetes risk factors such as obesity and elevated blood
sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol -- or a combination
of these.
This study shows that treatment and
control of combined hypertension and hypercholesterolemia
are "suboptimal," concludes the study team.
"The very important message,"
Wong concluded, "is that many persons with hypertension
also have hypercholesterolemia (and vice versa), and
that we have to do a better job at identifying when
both of these are present and treating both of these
conditions, as their coexistence dramatically increases
the risk of cardiovascular disease."
SOURCE: American Journal of Cardiology, July 15, 2006
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