A new report in JAMA Internal Medicine by University of Sydney and Bond University scholars weighs the risks and benefits of a recent change to blood pressure guidelines in the US.
The recent recommendations from American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association are as follows:
– lowering the threshold for diagnosing hypertension in adults from 140/80 mmHg to 130/80 mmH
– lowering the threshold for drug treatment of ‘high risk’ adults with hypertension who have existing CVD from 140/80 mmHg to 130/80 mmHg
– lowering the threshold for drug treatment of adults with a calculated 10-year CVD risk ?10%, or otherwise high risk, for example, people with diabetes or renal disease, from 140/80 mmHg to 130/80 mmHg.
