People who have “prehypertension,” blood pressure levels just below the cut-off for a diagnosis of high blood pressure, have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a report in The American Journal of Medicine.

Individuals with prehypertension, in the range of 120/80 to 139/89 mm Hg, who are elderly, obese, diabetic or African American have an even higher risk of cardiovascular disease, Dr. Abhijit V. Kshirsagar from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Reuters Health.

Kshirsagar and colleagues investigated the relationship between prehypertension and the risk of new cardiovascular disease in nearly 9,000 men and women participating in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study.

At the beginning of the study, patients with high-normal blood pressure also had a greater prevalence of traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease compared with the optimal blood pressure group, the authors report.

The rate of cardiovascular disease over the 11.6 years of follow-up increased significantly as blood pressure levels increased.

Compared with patients with optimal blood pressure, those with high-normal blood pressure had a 2.5-fold risk of developing cardiovascular disease, after consideration of other recognized cardiovascular risk factors.

Compared with optimal blood pressure, normal and high-normal blood pressure were associated with the development of cardiovascular disease among all subgroups, the results indicate. Most of the cardiovascular diseases that emerged were related to coronary heart disease rather than stroke.

Cardiovascular disease risk was especially high among blacks, diabetics, obese patients and those with LDL levels, the “bad” type of cholesterol, between 100 mg/dL and129 mg/dL, the investigators observed.

Prehypertension is clearly associated with a significant increase in cardiovascular disease,” the researchers conclude.

“The prehypertensive population is large,” Kshirsagar added. “Studies targeted at this population have the potential to make a significant impact.”

SOURCE: The American Journal of Medicine, February 2006.