While the saga of former President Bill Clinton’s bypass surgery has brought necessary media attention to the risk of heart attacks, Dr. Jay Cohn believes that the media coverage and Clinton himself may have misinformed the American people about coronary disease.

Cohn, Director of the Rasmussen Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the University of Minnesota Medical School, says early detection is the key to identifying and treating heart disease before symptoms occur.

The presence of heart disease, detected by early screening tests such as the CVProfilor®, should lead to aggressive medical therapy with drugs to lower cholesterol, reduce blood pressure and slow the progression of atherosclerosis.

Bypass surgery did not save Clinton’s life. It has relieved his symptoms and will greatly improve his lifestyle.

Referring to Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s report on “Bill Clinton’s Big Test” in the September 13, 2004 edition of Time, Cohn says that asymptomatic individuals, which Clinton was not, do not need to have an angiogram to “tell precisely where your arteries are blocked”, because there is no evidence for benefit of fixing blockages that are not causing problems.

Had Clinton undergone early screening years ago, he may not have become symptomatic, may not have needed an angiogram and may not have needed surgery.

“Angiograms detect late disease and are not the way to determine the need for medical therapy,” said Cohn. “Obviously Clinton had late stage disease, but the public should be aware that simple early screening tests are available and they shouldn’t wait to become symptomatic to address heart disease. If you think you are going to wait for symptoms of cardiovascular disease, you may not get the chance,” says Cohn.

The CVProfilor is an FDA-approved test that can be used as an initial screening device to determine if patients have potential underlying vascular disease that often precedes a heart attack or stroke. It works by measuring the elasticity of small and large arteries, the loss of which is a key indicator of vascular disease. The test is inexpensive, non-invasive, quick to perform, reimbursable, and provides immediate results.

“I believe the CVProfilor will become as important and widely used this century as the blood pressure cuff was last century,” said Dr. John Cooke, Director of Vascular Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.

For more information contact:

Greg Guettler
President
Hypertension Diagnostics, Inc.
Phone: 651 687 9999 Ext. 105
Website: www.hdii.com

Dr. Jay Cohn
Professor of Medicine
Director, Rasmussen Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
University of Minnesota Medical School
Phone: 612 625 5646

Michelle LaPaglia
Press contact
Hypertension Diagnostics, Inc.
Phone: 310 860 0341

Forward-looking statements in this press release are made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company wishes to caution readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements and to recognize that the statements are not a prediction of actual future results. Actual results could differ materially from those presented and anticipated in the forward-looking statements due to the risks and uncertainties set forth in the Company’s 2004 Annual Report on Form 10-KSB, and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-QSB, all of which were filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as others not now anticipated.

Contact: Mark Schwartz, CEO
651-687-9999