Introduction Cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention guidelines recommend lifetime risk stratification for primary prevention of CVD, but no such risk stratification has been performed in India to date. Methods We estimated short-term and lifetime predicted CVD risk among 10 054 disease free, adult Indians in the age group of 20-69 years who participated in a nationwide risk factor surveillance study. The study population was then stratified into high shortterm ($10% 10-year risk or diabetes),

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... ow short-term (<10%)/high lifetime and low short-term/low lifetime CVD risk groups. Results The mean age (SD) of the study population (men¼63%) was 40.8+10.9 years. High short-term risk for coronary heart disease was prevalent in more than one fifth of the population (23.5%, 95% CI 22.7 to 24.4). Nearly half of individuals with low short-term predicted risk (48.2%, 95% CI 47.1 to 49.3) had a high predicted lifetime risk for CVD. While the proportion of individuals with all optimal risk factors was 15.3% (95% CI 14.6 to 16.0), it was 20.6% (95% CI 18.7 to 22.6) and 8.8% (95% CI 7.7 to 10.5) in the highest and lowest educational groups, respectively. Conclusion Approximately 1 in 2 men and 3 in 4 women in India had low short-term predicted risks for CVD in this national study, based on aggregate risk factor burden. However, 2 in 3 men and 1 in 2 women had high lifetime predicted risks for CVD, highlighting a key limitation of short-term risk stratification. Background Women who have higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in early pregnancy are more prone to develop pregnancy complications such as hypertension, preeclampsia and eclampsia. These complications contribute significantly to morbidity, stillbirth and neonatal mortality. Objective To evaluate the effect of pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) on first trimester SBP, DBP and mean arterial pressure (MAP). Methods 118 pregnant women between 20 and 40 years of age, up to 13 weeks and free from chronic or infectious diseases were investigated. SBP and DBP were obtained with automatic arm sphygmomanometer (Omron) and MAP was calculated as (SBP +DBP32)/3. Statistical analysis was performed using ANOVA, correlation and multivariate linear regression. Adjustments were made for age, skin colour, parity and smoking. Results Women were 26.364.9 years of age, had 8.762.7 years of schooling, per-capita income (US$) of 291.26166.4 and pre-pregnancy BMI of 25.665.1 kg/m 2 . There was a moderate positive correlation between pre-pregnancy BMI and SBP (r¼0.52; p<0.001), DBP (r¼0.33; p<0.001) and MAP (r¼0.44; p<0.001). Mean MAP (mm Hg) increased with BMI categories (underweight¼76.5; normal weight¼77.4; overweight¼82.9 and obesity¼88.7, p<0.001) as did SBP (underweight¼100.3; normal weight¼105.8; over-weight¼112.4 and obesity¼121.2, p<0.001) and DBP (under-weight¼64.8; normal weight¼63.5; overweight¼68.3 and obesity¼72.6, p<0.001). Multivariate linear regression showed that an increase of 1.0 kg/m 2 in pre-pregnancy BMI raised SBP in 1.24 mm Hg (p<0.001) and 0.53 mm Hg in DBP (p¼0.002). Conclusion Women who begin pregnancy overweight or obese tend to have higher values of SBP and DBP, which may indicate a higher risk of developing hypertensive disorders during pregnancy. Introduction Hypertension is a common risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In Sri Lanka, despite the existence of a universal free health system, services are not available for routine screening of hypertension in the general population. This paper aims to describe the epidemiology of hypertension in 35e64 year old residents in Ragama Medical Officer of Health area in the Gampaha district, Sri Lanka. Methods An age-stratified random sample of 4400 adults between 35 and 64 years of age drawn from the population based electoral list, was invited for a screening programme on cardiovascular risk factors. Socio-demographic and risk factor related data and anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were obtained by trained research assistants. Blood was obtained for relevant biochemical investigations. Results The prevalence of hypertension (systolic >139 mm Hg and/or diastolic >89 mm Hg) in 2986 subjects (Males 45%), was 30.4% (27.8% in males; 32.5% in females). 31.8% (n¼288) were previously undetected. Of the known hypertensives, 19.5% were not on anti-hypertensive medication and only 32.1% were controlled (defined by systolic <140 mm Hg and diastolic <90 mm Hg). Factors associated with hypertension in both males and females were body mass index, waist circumference, fasting blood glucose and serum triglycerides. Conclusions The prevalence observed is comparable to the prevalences of developed countries with relatively older populations. A considerable proportion of known hypertensives are not on treatment and the observed poor control indicates problems in drug compliance. Interventions targeting lifestyle modification and drug compliance are essential to control adverse outcomes of hypertension.