Among individuals who have a heart attack for the first time, those with high blood pressure (hypertension) experience fewer in-hospital complications than do individuals who have normal blood pressure, according to Italian researchers. This could be due to a “less severe extension” of the affected area of the heart, they say.

Hypertension clearly increases the risk for acute Heart attack , but its role during and after a heart attack is less clear, Dr. Salvatore Novo from University of Palermo and colleagues explain in the American Journal of Hypertension.

They compared in-hospital outcomes in 915 hypertensive and 915 normotensive patients after their first heart attack.

Hypertensive patients were significantly more likely to have diabetes, unfavorable lipid profiles, renal failure, Peripheral arterial disease (hardening of the blood vessels in the legs), cerebrovascular disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than were the normotensive patients.

Despite the higher prevalence of these risk factors, hypertensive patients had significantly lower rates of cardiac complications and death than did normotensive patients.

“To the best of our knowledge, the current report is the first to indicate such a clear-cut significant difference in outcome of first-time (heart attack) in hypertensive and normotensive subjects,” the authors conclude. They say further studies are needed to define more clearly the possible reasons for these differences.

SOURCE: American Journal of Hypertension February, 2005.