OMRON MONITOR SPURS REVISED HYPERTENSION TREATMENT GUIDELINES.

(Full text of a statement. Contact details below.) MEDIA RELEASE PR26720 Omron(R) Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Monitor with Augmentation Index's Utility Spurs Revision of Hypertension Treatment Guidelines

KYOTO, June 29 /KYODO JBN-AsiaNet/ --

HEM-9000AI Allows Central Aortic Pressure to be Adopted as Measurement Index

The diagnosis, treatment and prevention of hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases is set to improve worldwide following the recent amendment to the treatment guidelines, which was encouraged by Omron Healthcare's non-invasive blood pressure monitor with augmentation index, the HEM-9000AI.

At the 17th European Meeting on Hypertension held June 15-19, 2007, in Milan, Italy, delegates agreed to make the first revision to hypertension treatment guidelines in four years by deciding to add central aortic pressure to the list of blood pressure indicators to be measured in hypertension management.

In addition to having new non-invasive technologies measure radial arterial pulse wave activity, recent research indicates that blood pressure lowering drugs affect central aortic pressure differently than they do systolic pressure measured at the upper arm. Central aortic pressure is systolic blood pressure taken at the root of the aorta in the heart and instances have been found of drugs lowering upper arm systolic pressure but not central aortic pressure.

Administration of therapy to lower central aortic pressure can make treatment to lower blood pressure even more effective and thereby allow doctors to better diagnose, treat and prevent hypertension, myocardial infarction, hypertrophy of the heart, arteriosclerosis, and other cardiovascular diseases.