Airlines had earlier 787 battery issues

U.S. Transportation regulators are asking Boeing for a complete history of the lithium-ion batteries used on 787 Dreamliners. Battery problems have grounded all 50 787s in use around the world. (Jan. 30)

Japan's two biggest airlines replaced below-par lithium-ion batteries on their Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliners in the months before separate incidents led to the technologically advanced aircraft being grounded worldwide due to battery problems.

Comments from both All Nippon Airways, the new Boeing jetliner's biggest customer to date, and Japan Airlines Co Ltd point to reliability issues with the batteries long before a battery caught fire on a JAL 787 at Boston's airport and a second battery was badly charred and melted on an ANA domestic flight that was forced into an emergency landing.

ANA said it changed 10 batteries on its 787s last year, but did not inform accident investigators in the United States because the incidents, including five batteries that had unusually low charges, did not compromise the plane's safety, spokesman Ryosei Nomura said on Wednesday.

JAL also replaced batteries on the 787 “on a few occasions”, said spokeswoman Sze Hunn Yap, declining to be more specific on when units were replaced or whether these were reported to authorities.

ANA did, however, inform Boeing of the faults that began in May, and returned the batteries to their manufacturer, GS Yuasa Corp. A spokesman for the battery maker declined to comment on Wednesday. Shares of the company fell 1.2 percent.

Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said the airplane maker could not comment as the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has indicated this is now part of their investigation.

LITTLE HEADWAY

The New York Times earlier quoted an NTSB spokeswoman as saying the agency would include these “numerous issues” with the 787 battery in its investigations.

Under aviation inspection rules, airlines are required to perform detailed battery inspections once every two years.

Officials are carrying out detailed tests on the batteries, chargers and monitoring units in Japan and the United States, but have so far made little headway in finding out what caused the battery failures.

Japan's transport ministry said the manufacturing process at the company which makes the 787 battery's monitoring unit did not appear to be linked to the problem on the ANA Dreamliner that made the emergency landing.

The NTSB said on Tuesday it was carrying out a microscopic investigation of the JAL 787 battery. Neither it nor the Japan Transport Safety Board has been able to say when they are likely to complete their work.

The global fleet of 50 Dreamliners - 17 of which are operated by ANA - remain grounded, increasing the likely financial impact to Boeing, which is still producing the aircraft but has stopped delivering them, and the airlines that fly the Dreamliner.

Boeing is due to report its latest quarterly earnings later on Wednesday, and ANA posts its earnings on Thursday. ANA shares rose 0.56 percent on Wednesday.
 

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2 men wounded at gas station where clerk slain in July

At least eight people were shot across Chicago overnight, including two men wounded just outside a West Side gas station where a clerk was slain last summer, authorities said.

The men, 31 and 34, were sitting in a car in front of the gas station in the 3300 block of West Washington Boulevard in East Garfield Park around 10:30 p.m., according to police.

Someone parked a van in the street, got out, walked up and shot them, police said. They were taken to Stroger Hospital and were expected to survive, police said.

In July, a clerk was shot and killed at the station about two hours before his shift was to end, according to police and the man's family.

In other shootings:

• About 2 a.m. a 26-year-old man was shot above the knee after he stepped onto a porch in the 2200 block of West 71st Street in the West Englewood neighborhood to smoke, police said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center and was reported stable.

•  Someone inside a car shot at a 37-year-old man in the 2400 block of West Huron Street in the West Town neighborhood about 12:15 a.m., police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital.

•  Another man, 38, was shot while driving in the 7200 block of South Champlain Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood about 9:45 p.m. Monday. He crashed into a pole after suffering a wound to the lower back, police said, and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center.

• Just before 9 p.m., someone shot a 23-year-old man in the abdomen in the 8300 block of South Carpenter Street, police said. The man was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center from near 83rd and Morgan Street, where he had walked after getting shot.

•  A 26-year-old man who had been shot in the right arm in the 2100 block of North Tripp Avenue in the Hermosa neighborhood was found a couple blocks away on Fullerton Avenue around 7 p.m., police said. He was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition, police said.

•  A 20-year-old man was in serious condition after someone shot him in the back in the 6200 block of South Artesian Avenue about 5:10 p.m. Monday in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood.  He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Chicago Fire Department.

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Children’s magazine promotes adult video games

LONDON (Reuters) – A British magazine distributed by a joint venture of Conde Nast and Hearst Corporation and aimed at primary school children has been featuring images of adult-rated video games.

The most recent issue of Cool Kidz, which is published by privately-owned LCD Publishing, contained images of five games that carried age ratings of 18 years, under the European gaming industry’s PEGI rating scheme.

Screenshots appeared as double-page spreads, for use as posters, and were reproduced in spot-the-difference and other puzzles. Earlier issues also had images from 18- and 16-rated games.

Children’s campaigners said the images reflected a growing problem of young children being exposed to violent video games, thereby increasing the chance they start playing them earlier.

It also highlighted what some critics describe as an apparent gap in regulation of children’s magazines since LCD does not appear to have broken any law or industry rule.

LCD Publishing, which is based in Exeter, southwest England, said it took its responsibilities to young readers seriously.

“We censor the images we use to ensure that there is no blood or apparent body damage,” owner Allen Trump said in an emailed statement.

He said the images used were suitable for children 12 or older, although he added the magazine was targeted at children up to 12 years.

The pictures printed depicted life-like computer generated images of men carrying weapons including assault rifles, Bowie knives, an axe, an anti-tank weapon and pistols.

The images showed explosions but not the visceral, bloody combat or scenes of a sexual nature for which the games are frequently criticized by parents’ groups and women’s rights advocates.

Cool Kidz is distributed by Comag, which is controlled by privately-owned U.S. magazine publishers Conde Nast, owners of Vogue magazine, and the Hearst Corporation, owner of Cosmopolitan magazine.

All three groups declined repeated requests for comment.

London-based Comag is one of the largest magazine distributors in the UK with annual turnover of around 230 million pounds ($ 360 million), according to its most recent accounts.

FREE PROMOTION

Trump said LCD downloaded the game images from the Internet although he was also occasionally approached by public relations firms seeking coverage of their clients’ games.

Games publishers regularly post images on their websites, for use by online and print publishers, thus helping create awareness of their game.

Games firms contacted by Reuters said they were unaware Cool Kidz, which has been published for seven years, had been using their images.

The adult games Cool Kidz featured included Hitman: Absolution, Call of Duty Black Ops II, Assassins Creed III, Farcry 3 and Dishonored.

Representatives for Japan’s Square Enix, publisher of the Hitman series, privately-owned Bethesda Softworks, publisher of Dishonored, and Ubisoft Entertainment, publisher of Assassins Creed III and Farcry 3, said they opposed the use but declined to say whether they would take any legal action against LCD.

Call of Duty publisher Activision declined to comment.

Alison Sherratt, senior vice-president of teachers union ATL, said publishers and government needed to do more to limit children’s’ exposure to games.

“It puts peer pressure on children .. If they see these images, it gives them the idea it’s ok, it’s all right to play these games,” she added.

A spokeswoman for the Advertising Standards Authority said games companies could not advertise 18 rated games in children’s magazines and a spokesman for the Video Standards Council (VSC), the UK affiliate of PEGI, said its rules also prohibited this.

However, since the images were not paid-for advertising, or supplied to Cool Kidz by the games publishers, these rules do not apply.

The Press Complaints Commission can adjudicate on complaints against magazines but only in respect of its members. LCD is not one.

The Office of Fair Trade and the Professional Publishers Association, trade group for magazine publishers, said they were unaware of any bodies that had regulatory powers over the content of children’s magazines.

(Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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Oscar nod for protest film cheers Palestinians

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Oscar-nominated documentary “5 Broken Cameras” screened for Palestinians for the first time on Monday, leaving locals hopeful that their struggle with Israel for land and statehood will gain a global audience.

The low-cost film is based on five years of amateur camera work by journalist Emad Burnat as he documented weekly protests against land seizures by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in his village of Bil’in in the occupied West Bank.

Neighbors are killed in the protests and demolition equipment mars the landscape while the filmmaker captures his infant son’s rapid loss of innocence, heralded by his first words: “wall” and “army.”

“This is a film for those who were martyred. It’s bigger than me and bigger than Bil’in. More than a billion people follow the Oscars and they will know our struggle now,” Burnat said after the viewing.

His work will compete at next month’s Oscar ceremony against four other films, including a documentary called “The Gatekeepers” that looks at the decades-old Middle East conflict through the eyes of six top former Israeli intelligence bosses.

Although the perspective is very different, both movies share a surprisingly similar message — the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is morally wrong and must end.

Burnat’s film received a standing ovation at its premier in Ramallah, the Palestinians‘ administrative capital, with the audience excited to see their seemingly endless conflict splashed on the big screen.

“The film shows the whole world what occupation is. It wiped the happiness off the boy’s face at too young an age. This has been the experience for all of us,” said taxi driver Ahmed Mustafa, who brought his wife and child to the viewing

“It’s not all bad though. It shows that there is progress, there are victories, and that our cause is still alive and moving,” he said.

In 2007, Israel’s High Court ruled that the separation barrier built on Bil’in lands was illegal and ordered it rerouted, cheering activists. The ruling was finally implemented in 2011, but the protests continue.

ISRAELI CO-DIRECTION

Humble villagers in black-and-white chequered Palestinian scarves and smartly dressed city dwellers shared the same visceral reaction to scenes in the film that are much chronicled but seldom appear in feature-length film.

A shot of olive trees reduced to glowing embers after being torched by Jewish settlers coaxes an audible gasp from viewers.

“Oh God!” said one man.

But as Burnat’s camera captures defiant chants in the protagonists’ village accent, or rocks being hurled at fleeing Israeli jeeps, ecstatic applause filled the hall.

The film was co-directed by an Israeli activist and filmmaker, Guy Davidi. This close association has led some people to classify 5 Broken Cameras as an Israeli movie and it was rejected by a Morocco film festival for this reason.

However, Burnat said it had been shown in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries and denied that the joint production reflected any meaningful “normalization” of relations between Israel and the Palestinians.

“(Davidi) is a solidarity activist who came to the village to show his support. He was shown our material and agreed to help. This doesn’t represent Israeli-Palestinian collaboration,” Burnat said.

But the film’s action shows many examples of cooperation between Israeli solidarity activists and locals.

An Israeli photographer gives Burnat one of his five cameras, which are progressively shot or crushed in protests over the years, giving the film its name, and Israeli solidarity activists are shown helping to plan protests in Hebrew.

“Working jointly with an Israeli doesn’t diminish this work, it enhances it,” Palestinian student Amira Daood told Reuters.

“They’re not all against us. Some are opposed to what Israel is doing and the movie demonstrates that,” she said.

(Reporting By Noah Browning, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Rescuer Appears for New York Downtown Hospital

Manhattan’s only remaining hospital south of 14th Street, New York Downtown, has found a white knight willing to take over its debt and return it to good health, hospital officials said Monday.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, one of New York City’s largest academic medical centers, has proposed to take over New York Downtown in a “certificate of need” filed with the State Health Department. The three-page proposal argues that though New York Downtown is projected to have a significant operating loss in 2013, it is vital to Lower Manhattan, including Wall Street, Chinatown and the Lower East Side, especially since the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital after it declared bankruptcy in 2010.

The rescue proposal, which would need the Health Department’s approval, comes at a precarious time for hospitals in the city. Long Island College Hospital, just across the river in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, has been threatened with closing after a failed merger with SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and several other Brooklyn hospitals are considering mergers to stem losses.

New York Downtown has been affiliated with the NewYork-Presbyterian health care system while maintaining separate operations.

“We are looking forward to having them become a sixth campus so the people in that community can continue to have a community hospital that continues to serve them,” Myrna Manners, a spokeswoman for NewYork-Presbyterian, said.

Fred Winters, a spokesman for New York Downtown, declined to comment.

Presbyterian’s proposal emphasized that it would acquire New York Downtown’s debt at no cost to the state, a critical point at a time when the state has shown little interest in bailing out failing hospitals.

The proposal said that if New York Downtown were to close, it would leave more than 300,000 residents of Lower Manhattan, including the financial district, Greenwich Village, SoHo, the Lower East Side and Chinatown, without a community hospital. In addition, it said, 750,000 people work and visit in the area every day, a number that is expected to grow with the construction of 1 World Trade Center and related buildings.

The proposal argues that New York Downtown is essential partly because of its long history of responding to disasters in the city. One of its predecessors was founded as a direct result of the 1920 terrorist bombing outside the J. P. Morgan Building, and the hospital has responded to the 1975 bombing of Fraunces Tavern, the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, and, this month, the crash of a commuter ferry from New Jersey.

Like other fragile hospitals in the city, New York Downtown has shrunk, going to 180 beds, down from the 254 beds it was certified for in 2006, partly because the more affluent residents of Lower Manhattan often go to bigger hospitals for elective care.

The proposal says that half of the emergency department patients at New York Downtown either are on Medicaid, the program for the poor, or are uninsured.

NewYork-Presbyterian would absorb the cost of the hospital’s maternity and neonatal intensive care units, which have been expanding because of demand, but have been operating at a deficit of more than $1 million a year, the proposal said.

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Chicago home price recovery lags

The Chicago area's housing recovery continued to lag behind other cities and the nation, as prices in November fell 1.3 percent from a month earlier, according to a widely watched barometer of the housing market.

On an annual basis, home prices in the Chicago area rose only 0.8 percent in November, the smallest positive gain recorded among the 20 cities included in the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, released Tuesday.

Nationally, home prices rose 5.5 percent annually for the 20-city composite. Much of that gain can be traced to market improvements in once hard-hit places like Phoenix, where home prices have risen 22.8 percent in 12 months. Other cities recording strong yearly increases included Detroit, up 11.9 percent; Las Vegas, up 10 percent; San Francisco, up 12.7 percent; and Minneapolis, up 11.1 percent.

"Housing is clearly recovering," said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P Dow Jones Indices' index committee. "Prices are rising as are both new and existing home sales."

Most cities saw prices decrease in November from their October levels, which Blitzer tied with the housing market's typical winter weakness.

Nevertheless, Chicago turned in the worst monthly performance among the 20 cities. It was the third consecutive monthly decline for local home prices, which showed signs of strength earlier in 2012.

Condominium values in the Chicago market also fell for the second consecutive month. In November, they were down .9 percent from October but rose 2.7 percent from November 2011.

mepodmolik@tribune.com | Twitter @mepodmolik

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2 killed in West Rogers Park in possible carbon monoxide leak

Police are investigating whether a carbon monoxide leak led to the deaths of two people in West Rogers Park.

Authorities are investigating whether a carbon monoxide leak caused the deaths of two women in a West Rogers Park apartment building, officials said.

Paramedics were first called about 10:30 a.m. Sunday to the building in the 2500 block of West North Shore Avenue to transport one woman to the hospital, Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman Meg Ahlheim said.

The woman was taken in cardiac arrest to Swedish Covenant Hospital, Ahlheim said.

Fire officials at the scene called for a second ambulance, and another woman was taken to Swedish Covenant as well, Ahlheim said.

Both women died at the hospital.

Rasheeda Akhter, 77, was pronounced dead at 11:14 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The second victim, 18-year-old Zanib Ahmed, died at 9 p.m., according to the medical examiner's office.

Back at the building, fire officials checked the carbon monoxide levels but found no indication of a leak, Ahlheim said.

Paramedics were called back to the scene, however, about 3:45 p.m. for another woman found unresponsive. She was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston in critical condition, Ahlheim said.

Officials checked carbon monoxide levels again, and while the meter readings in residential units did not indicate a leak, officials found a positive reading for a low level of carbon monoxide near a boiler in the basement, Ahlheim said.

Police suspect the deaths were caused by accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, but no official determination will be made until autopsy results are reported, Police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said.

A spokeswoman for Peoples Gas, Jennifer Block, said representatives from the company were called to the building to assist police and fire officials. She referred further questions to the police and fire departments.

asege@tribune.com

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Apple reportedly prepping new 128GB fourth-gen iPad

It isn’t the “next big thing” Apple (AAPL) investors are said to be waiting for as the company’s share price continues to plummet, but Apple is reportedly prepping a new iPad that will be its first iOS device to pack more than 64GB of storage. 9to5Mac reports that Apple has a new fourth-generation iPad SKU that will soon hit the shelves at one of its retail partners’ stores. Details are slim but the site says its source noted the presence of the word “ultimate” next to the new iPad’s description in the retailer’s system, leading 9to5Mac to speculate that the new model will feature 128GB of internal memory, adding a fourth storage option to Apple’s full-size iPad arsenal. The 128GB iPad listed in the retailer’s system reportedly features both Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity options. A purported image from the “high-profile” retailer’s inventory system follows below.

[More from BGR: Driverless cars could be the big thing that vaults Google over Apple]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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“Argo” boosts Oscar chances with two weekend award

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Iran hostage drama “Argo” won its second big award in two days on Sunday, boosting its chances of winning a best picture Oscar next month in a race that had been considered wide open.

“Argo” won best cast ensemble, the top prize, at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, while Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence took lead acting honors.

On Saturday, “Argo” won the Producers Guild Award – a key measure of Hollywood sentiment – beating “Lincoln,” “Les Miserables,” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” which are all Academy Award best picture contenders.

“There was absolutely no way I thought we would win this award,” the film’s director and star, Ben Affleck, told reporters backstage after the SAG win. “Argo” is the true story of the rescue of U.S. diplomats stranded in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Asked about his movie’s Oscar chances, Affleck said he was not in the business of “handicapping or trying to divine what’s going to happen down the road.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, nothing may happen, but it’s a wonderful opportunity to be on the ride,” Affleck added.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) ceremony is among the most-watched during Hollywood’s awards season because actors make up the largest voting group in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which chooses the Oscar winners. The SAG honors are selected by about 100,000 actors working in the United States.

SAG prizes acting over directing, screenplay writing and other skills that usually factor into the Oscar best picture choice.

PLAYING DOWN OSCAR HOPES

British-born Day-Lewis, who has picked up a slew of awards for his intense portrayal of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s efforts to abolish slavery in “Lincoln,” confirmed his status as front-runner for what would be his record third Oscar on February 24.

But the actor played down his Oscar hopes backstage. “Members of the academy love surprises, so about the worst thing that can happen to you is if you’ve built up an expectation,” Day-Lewis told reporters.

Accepting his award on stage to a standing ovation, he recalled that “it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln and, therefore, it is sometimes only fitting that, now and then, an actor tries to bring him back to life again.”

In one of the most closely contested categories, Lawrence, 22, was chosen best lead actress for playing an outspoken young widow in “Silver Linings Playbook” over Jessica Chastain’s feisty CIA agent in Osama bin Laden thriller “Zero Dark Thirty.”

Tommy Lee Jones, 66, won the best supporting actor trophy for his turn as radical Congressman Thaddeus Stevens in “Lincoln,” beating strong competition from Robert De Niro, who played a gruff father in “Silver Linings Playbook.”

Anne Hathaway, 30, won her first SAG award for her supporting role as the tragic Fantine in musical “Les Miserables.”

“I got my SAG card when I was 14 … And I have loved every single minute of my life as an actor,” said Hathaway, accepting the statuette.

SAG also handed out awards for performances in TV dramas, comedies and mini-series, and gave a lifetime achievement award to actor Dick Van Dyke.

In TV drama, the British cooks and countesses period show “Downton Abbey” won best ensemble cast. “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston was named best actor and “Homeland’s” Claire Danes best actress.

“Modern Family” won the best comedy cast ensemble award for a third consecutive time. Alec Baldwin won best TV comedy actor for the 8th time for his role as an egotistical executive in “30 Rock” and his co-star Tina Fey took the honors for comedy actress ahead of the show’s final episode on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis, editing by Stacey Joyce)

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Well: Keeping Blood Pressure in Check

Since the start of the 21st century, Americans have made great progress in controlling high blood pressure, though it remains a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and kidney disease.

Now 48 percent of the more than 76 million adults with hypertension have it under control, up from 29 percent in 2000.

But that means more than half, including many receiving treatment, have blood pressure that remains too high to be healthy. (A normal blood pressure is lower than 120 over 80.) With a plethora of drugs available to normalize blood pressure, why are so many people still at increased risk of disease, disability and premature death? Hypertension experts offer a few common, and correctable, reasons:

¶ About 20 percent of affected adults don’t know they have high blood pressure, perhaps because they never or rarely see a doctor who checks their pressure.

¶ Of the 80 percent who are aware of their condition, some don’t appreciate how serious it can be and fail to get treated, even when their doctors say they should.

¶ Some who have been treated develop bothersome side effects, causing them to abandon therapy or to use it haphazardly.

¶ Many others do little to change lifestyle factors, like obesity, lack of exercise and a high-salt diet, that can make hypertension harder to control.

Dr. Samuel J. Mann, a hypertension specialist and professor of clinical medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College, adds another factor that may be the most important. Of the 71 percent of people with hypertension who are currently being treated, too many are taking the wrong drugs or the wrong dosages of the right ones.

Dr. Mann, author of “Hypertension and You: Old Drugs, New Drugs, and the Right Drugs for Your High Blood Pressure,” says that doctors should take into account the underlying causes of each patient’s blood pressure problem and the side effects that may prompt patients to abandon therapy. He has found that when treatment is tailored to the individual, nearly all cases of high blood pressure can be brought and kept under control with available drugs.

Plus, he said in an interview, it can be done with minimal, if any, side effects and at a reasonable cost.

“For most people, no new drugs need to be developed,” Dr. Mann said. “What we need, in terms of medication, is already out there. We just need to use it better.”

But many doctors who are generalists do not understand the “intricacies and nuances” of the dozens of available medications to determine which is appropriate to a certain patient.

“Prescribing the same medication to patient after patient just does not cut it,” Dr. Mann wrote in his book.

The trick to prescribing the best treatment for each patient is to first determine which of three mechanisms, or combination of mechanisms, is responsible for a patient’s hypertension, he said.

¶ Salt-sensitive hypertension, more common in older people and African-Americans, responds well to diuretics and calcium channel blockers.

¶ Hypertension driven by the kidney hormone renin responds best to ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers, as well as direct renin inhibitors and beta-blockers.

¶ Neurogenic hypertension is a product of the sympathetic nervous system and is best treated with beta-blockers, alpha-blockers and drugs like clonidine.

According to Dr. Mann, neurogenic hypertension results from repressed emotions. He has found that many patients with it suffered trauma early in life or abuse. They seem calm and content on the surface but continually suppress their distress, he said.

One of Dr. Mann’s patients had had high blood pressure since her late 20s that remained well-controlled by the three drugs her family doctor prescribed. Then in her 40s, periodic checks showed it was often too high. When taking more of the prescribed medication did not result in lasting control, she sought Dr. Mann’s help.

After a thorough work-up, he said she had a textbook case of neurogenic hypertension, was taking too much medication and needed different drugs. Her condition soon became far better managed, with side effects she could easily tolerate, and she no longer feared she would die young of a heart attack or stroke.

But most patients should not have to consult a specialist. They can be well-treated by an internist or family physician who approaches the condition systematically, Dr. Mann said. Patients should be started on low doses of one or more drugs, including a diuretic; the dosage or number of drugs can be slowly increased as needed to achieve a normal pressure.

Specialists, he said, are most useful for treating the 10 percent to 15 percent of patients with so-called resistant hypertension that remains uncontrolled despite treatment with three drugs, including a diuretic, and for those whose treatment is effective but causing distressing side effects.

Hypertension sometimes fails to respond to routine care, he noted, because it results from an underlying medical problem that needs to be addressed.

“Some patients are on a lot of blood pressure drugs — four or five — who probably don’t need so many, and if they do, the question is why,” Dr. Mann said.

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