By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - There is definitely a link between high blood pressure and stroke. We have seen it agaian and again and that is one of the major reasons that we aggressively treat high blood pressure.

Now a new study has looked at different ethnic groups and the link between high blood pressure and stroke. There is a very disturbing finding.

According to the report in The Archives of Internal Medicine, African Americans have a far greater risk of stroke.  When whites were studied, for every ten millimeters of mercury increase in blood pressure, the risk of stroke went up eight percent.
Certainly, that is a serious risk but in African Americans the same rise in blood pressure increases the risk of stroke by twenty four percent…three times the increase in whites.

The bottom line is that we need to be aggressive in controlling high blood pressure in all people but the urgency is even geater in African Americans.