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Editor's Note
July 2018

The New Hypertension Guidelines: Compelling Population Benefit, Manageable Risk, and Time to Implement

Author Affiliations
  • 1Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
  • 2Deputy Editor, JAMA Cardiology
  • 3Division of Cardiology, Ronald Reagan University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles, California
JAMA Cardiol. 2018;3(7):581-582. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2018.1264

The 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guideline for the prevention, detection, evaluation, and management of high blood pressure in adults markedly reset the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension.1 These new directives have resulted in the identification of more individuals with hypertension, more requiring antihypertensive therapy, and more requiring intensification of antihypertensive therapy. Muntner et al2 set the revised prevalence of hypertension at 45.6%, or 103 million US individuals, with treatment recommended for 81.9 million or 36.2% of US individuals. These new directives and population health estimates have been met with alternative guidelines and strong concerns regarding risks. However, the data brought forward by Bundy et al3 addressing compelling population benefits provide a strong counter and incite an argument for robust implementation.

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