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(Hypertension. 2007;50:991.)
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.

Brief Reviews

The Burden of Blood Pressure-Related Disease

A Neglected Priority for Global Health

Vlado Perkovic; Rachel Huxley; Yangfeng Wu; Dorairaj Prabhakaran; Stephen MacMahon

From the George Institute for International Health (V.P., R.H., S.M.), University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Department of Nephrology (V.P.), Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia; George Institute for International Health (Y.W.), Peking University Health Science Centre, Beijing, China; Department of Cardiology (D.P.), All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India; and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (S.M.), Sydney, Australia.

Correspondence to Vlado Perkovic, George Institute for International Health, University of Sydney, PO Box M201, Level 10, King George V Building, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Missenden Rd, Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia. E-mail vperkovic@george.org.au

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
The importance of high blood pressure as a major cause of common serious diseases has been recognized in most Western countries for 50 years. Before that, malignant hypertension was a frequent reason for hospital admission and a common cause of death.¹ Safe and effective antihypertensive drugs were first developed in the 1960s and were shown to dramatically improve the prognosis associated with malignant hypertension.^2,3 Over the next few decades, the widespread use of an expanding armamentarium of blood pressure–lowering drugs to patients at risk of malignant hypertension effectively eradicated this condition from most developed countries. Subsequently, the provision of blood pressure–lowering treatments to a much broader group of patients at risk of serious cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke and coronary heart disease, among whom blood pressure levels were often only modestly elevated, contributed importantly to the declines in stroke and coronary disease deaths rates experienced by most Western populations.⁴

However, the situation in higher-income countries stands in stark contrast to that experienced by their lower-income neighbors. The overall burden of blood pressure–related diseases is rapidly rising in countries such as India and China as a consequence of the aging population, increasing urbanization, and increases in age-specific rates of conditions such as stroke.^5,6 Even war-torn countries and those ravaged by HIV/AIDS, such as some in sub-Saharan Africa, incur a huge burden of blood pressure–related diseases. In several such populations, cerebral hemorrhage is the leading cause of death in adults.⁷ Although safe and effective antihypertensive treatment could be provided in these regions . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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