High Blood Pressure and Survival in ICU

High blood pressure upon ICU admittance for chest pains linked to better survival odds.
HealthDay (3/23, Edelson) reported that "high blood pressure -- even above the level ordinarily regarded as dangerous -- is a good indicator of long-term survival for people admitted to an intensive care unit because of chest pains that indicate a major heart problem," according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
MedPage Today (3/23, Phend) reported that "chest pain patients admitted to the ICU with a supine systolic blood pressure of 163 mm Hg or higher had an absolute 21.7% lower risk of dying over one year compared with those who presented with an intermediate 128 to 144 mm Hg pressure." The researchers found that "the lowest blood pressure quartile -- who came in with roughly normal pressure of less than 128 mm Hg -- carried a 40.3% higher mortality risk than that intermediate group."