Blood Pressure experts offer new advice based on a recent study conducted by the ACP/AAFP, which shows that the threshold for hypertension in healthy patients may not be as low as what the SPRINT study of 2015 concluded.
Well, this advice isn’t actually that new. The ACP/AAFP are adding to the conversation within the medical community around appropriate recommended blood pressure targets that has been taking place for several years.
Last year the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) released their hypertension guidelines, which expounded on two additional guidelines published in 2013—one by the Eighth Joint National Committee (JNC 8) and the other by both the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) and the International Society of Hypertension (ISH).
This mishmash of alphabet soup could understandably be confusing for the regular general practitioner. If anything, it highlights the need for physicians to thoroughly understand their patients specific backgrounds and clinical profiles before making decisions about hypertension treatments.
This issue of differing BP targets has been discussed on the SunTech blog here and here, which can hopefully continue shedding light on this issue.