Curbing high blood pressure

Monday, 04 June, 2012, 6:22am

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ALTHOUGH physicians do not know the cause of most high blood pressure in humans, they have for years known that the condition is associated with heart attacks and other disease.

Experimenting with rabbits, researchers found that a substance called angiotensin II, known to cause blood pressure to rise, apparently causes a portion of heart tissue to thicken, leading to cardiac death.

Using another substance, phenylephrine, the scientists were able to increase rabbit blood pressure without thickening heart tissue.