Black stroke survivors face greater risk from high blood pressure

Black people who survive strokes caused by bleeding in the brain were more likely than whites to have high blood pressure a year later – increasing their risk of another stroke, according to a study in the American Heart Association journal Stroke. 

The study examined racial and ethnic differences in these strokes, called intracranial haemorrhage, or ICH.

They account for only 10 per cent of all strokes but have a death rate of about 40 per cent in the first month, much higher than other types of stroke. High blood pressure is the most important modifiable risk factor associated with bleeding stroke.  

''If you have already had a stroke, blood pressure treatment can reduce your chance of having another stroke by between 25 and 50 per cent,'' said Darin B. Zahuranec, MD, MS, lead author of the study and assistant professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center in Ann Arbor. 

However, more than half of patients in the study still had high blood pressure a year after the stroke, despite taking one or more anti-hypertensive medications.

There were no significant racial differences 30 days after ICH. But a year later, 63 per cent of blacks had hypertension, compared with 38 per cent of whites, despite taking more blood pressure medications.