(HealthDay News) --Following on recent, similar research, a large
five-year study points to fluctuations in blood pressure over time as
a key indicator of stroke risk.

In the study, British researchers tracked the health of more than
19,000 patients taking either beta blockers or calcium channel blocker
medication to curb high blood pressure.

Patients who placed in the highest 10 percent in terms of swings in
blood pressure between doctor visits had about four times the risk of
stroke compared to those with the least variable blood pressure, the
researchers reported.

Similar results occurred when the researchers analyzed patients' risks
for heart attack.

Overall, patients who took calcium channel blockers had a 22 percent
lower risk of stroke vs. those who took beta blockers, and differences
in blood pressure variability between the two groups seemed to explain
the gap in risk.

The findings were to be released Sunday at the American College of
Cardiology (ACC) annual meeting, in Atlanta.

"These findings have major clinical implications for the management of
patients with high blood pressure," study author Dr. Peter Sever, a
professor of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics and co-director of
the International Centre for Circulatory Health, Imperial College,
London, said in an ACC news release. "Our data convincingly
demonstrate that patients with more variation in their blood pressure
levels are at greatest risk of future heart attacks and strokes, and
that reducing variability is a key goal of treatment."

The findings echo those of four studies led by Dr. Peter Rothwell of
the University of Oxford in England and published Thursday in The
Lancet and The Lancet Neurology. In one paper, Rothwell and his
colleagues found that people with the greatest variation in systolic
blood pressure (the higher of the 120/80 readings) over seven visits
to their doctor were six times more likely to have a major stroke.
People with the highest blood pressure readings were 15 times more
likely to have a stroke.

"I think these findings are very important and very compelling, and
may revolutionize how we treat blood pressure in the future," Dr.
Philip B. Gorelick, director of the Center for Stroke Research at the
University of Illinois, said last week. "They provide a very important
foundation for change in future treatment."