High Blood Pressure Assessment and Management

Hypertension or High Blood Pressure is a very common problem these days and most of the time it is familial which means it occurs without any obvious reason. The American College of Cardiology and other major professional societies keep changing the cut off number for defining high blood pressure every 5 years or so. According to the current guidelines high blood pressure is defined as a systolic blood pressure (which is the upper number) of more than 130 mmHg and a diastolic blood pressure (which is the lower number)of more than 85 mmHg. Recent weight gain, intake of high salt diet (especially Chinese and Thai food), some cold and pain medications can all transiently elevate your blood pressure.

Blood Pressure (Hypertension) is called the silent killer.In most patients it doesn’t causes any pain or discomfort, but it can cause damage to the eyes, heart, kidney and brain and even result in stroke. It is therefore very important to seek medical help if you have any elevation in your blood pressure and let your doctor decide if you need medications to control it.

Our doctor has done specialty training in evaluating and managing high blood pressure. Before doing cardiology training, Dr Shahab did a year of fellowship in Hypertension at the prestigious University of Michigan Medical Center. The University of Michigan is only one of few centers in the US, which are dedicated to finding the cause and treatment of various types of hypertension. Dr Shahab specializes in difficult to treat hypertension patients. He has written several papers on Hypertension which were published in major US and world journals:
‍
Julius S, Jamieson K, Weder A, Shahab ST. The Hemodynamic Link between Insulin Resistance and Hypertension. J Hypertension 1991, 9: 983-986.

Zweifler AJ and Shahab ST:  Pseudohypertension: A New Assessment. J Hypertension 1993, 11: 1-6.

‍Shahab ST, Julius S, Jamieson K, Gudbrandson T: Normal Clinic and Elevated Home Blood Pressure in Tecumseh, Michigan. Croatian Medical Journal, Jan 1993.

Principal Investigator: Evaluation of Pseudohypertension using ‘FINAPRES’; University of Michigan.

Co-Investigator: Tecumseh Blood Pressure Study --- A population based study evaluating risk factors for atherosclerosis in borderline hypertensives; University of Michigan.
‍
Co-Investigator: Forearm Euglycemic Clamp Study in Normal and Hypertensive Population; University of Michigan.