Short Takes - 2005-01-18

Some one billion people worldwide have high blood pressure, but that number will soar 60% to 1.56 billion in the next 20 years, estimates a Tulane University study. A third of the adult population will have high blood pressure by 2025, and the greatest increase is expected in underdeveloped regions such as Africa and Latin America, according to the report, which pooled data from 30 studies involving 700,000 people. The study appears in The Lancet.