The debate over the optimal blood pressure treatment target of less than 130/80 mmHg

Postgrad Med. 2022 Mar 14. doi: 10.1080/00325481.2022.2052516. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTHypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, and chronic kidney disease (CKD) and its good control is associated with lessening or prevention of these complications. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to analyze the debate over the 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) recommendations for a blood pressure (BP) treatment target of < 130/80 mmHg across all age groups. The purpose of these guidelines was that they will result in greater prevention of cardiovascular (CV) events compared to less aggressive BP control. These new guidelines have not been accepted by some investigators and have created a debate over the recommended BP treatment target as being universally accepted. To analyze the reasons for this debate, a Medline search of the current English language medical literature was conducted between 2017 and February 2022 and 25 pertinent papers were selected and will be discussed in this meta-opinion together with collateral literature. The analysis of data from these papers, demonstrate that more CV benefits are achieved with the new guidelines, but similar CV benefits have been also achieved by other studies with higher BP targets and this has created a great controversy. Based on the current evidence, lower BP levels are safe and cardioprotective and the 2017 ACC/AHA BP treatment guidelines should be ...
Source: Postgraduate Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Source Type: research