Predicting Risk For High Blood Pressure

(Medical News Today) High blood pressure also called hypertension is a major health problem that when left untreated can lead to heart disease, stroke and kidney failure. African Americans are more likely to develop high blood pressure and develop it earlier in life than Caucasians. But the reasons for the heightened risk in African Americans still remained largely unknown, although new evidence may provide some insight. 

Dr. TanYa Gwathmey from the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center studies the factors that contribute to having high blood pressure, particularly in African Americans. Her group found that there are racial differences in the activity of enzymes that make or breakdown a major regulator of blood pressure. And her results correlate with the bias of African Americans being more at risk. 

At the annual 2010 Experimental Biology conference in Anaheim, CA held April 24-28, Gwathmey will be discussing these findings in her presentation titled “Sex and Racial Background Influence Angiotensin Peptide Metabolism in Young Adults.” The team of researchers that also contributed to this study includes Hossam Shaltout and Mark Chappell of the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center; James Rose of the Center for Perinatal Research; Lisa Washburn of the Department of Pediatrics from the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center; and Patricia Nixon of the Department of Health and Exercise Science of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC. 

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