New BP Guideline Criticized

The American College of Physicians criticized that the 2017 blood pressure (BP) guideline may fall short in weighing the potential benefits against potential harms, costs, and anticipated variation in individual patient preferences, especially for average- and lower-risk adults 60 and older. Other experts echoed some of the same concerns, arguing against a one-size-fits-all BP goal. It may be reasonable to consider more aggressive treatment goals in the highest-risk patients. For everyone else, it may be more reasonable to continue defining hypertension as a BP of 140/90 mm Hg or higher and to take an individualized approach, especially for those with poor vascular compliance (i.e., pulse pressures above 80 to 90 mm Hg), who typically have dizziness and poor mentation as their systolic BP approaches 140 mm Hg； for many people over 70 with isolated systolic hypertension. Source: http://annals.org/; http://www.nejm.org/