Blood pressure-lowering medications may reduce stroke risk.

WebMD (12/9, Mann) reports that "blood pressure-lowering pills may help lower the risk of stroke in people with prehypertension," according to a study published online in Stroke.

        HealthDay (12/9, Gordon) reports that investigators looked at data from "16 randomized controlled trials involving people with prehypertension taking a form of blood pressure-lowering drug, such as an ACE inhibitor, beta blocker or angiotensin receptor blocker." For patients "receiving active treatment with an antihypertensive, the risk of stroke dropped by 22 percent." The investigators "also found that to prevent one stroke from occurring, 169 people would have to be treated with a blood pressure medication for an average of 4.3 years."

        Medscape (12/9, Anderson) reports, "To investigate whether a single study was driving the results, the investigators performed a 'one-study out' analysis, which confirmed that the risk reduction remained statistically significant when excluding any of the studies."