VA's New Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial

VA Has Key Role in 80-Site Blood Pressure Study 03/18/2010. The National Institutes of Health has awarded $15 million to William Cushman, MD, chief of preventive medicine at the Memphis VA Medical Center, to lead a network of 20 VA sites in the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial. The trial will test whether lowering systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood-pressure reading) beyond current guidelines can further curb heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events—as well as kidney disease— in older people. Experts believe this may be the case, based on prior observational studies. VA