2011 Articles

Guidelines, Inertia, and Judgment

Krakoff, Lawrence R.; Kronish, Ian M.

There is a general agreement among healthcare providers that hypertension should be controlled, by either lifestyle improvement or antihypertensive drug treatment, for prevention of cardiovascular and renal disease. This agreement has been articulated in published guidelines and widely disseminated in other formats. Control has been defined as reduction of pressure below thresholds of 140/90 mm Hg and, for those with diabetes mellitus or chronic renal disease, 130/80 mm Hg. Population surveys in the United States estimate that control of hypertension remains suboptimal, with ≈50% continuing to have uncontrolled hypertension.