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High normal blood pressure value, is the patient at increased CV risk?

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 36, pages 589–590 (2022)Cite this article

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Patients with high normal blood pressure (BP) are considered at increased cardiovascular risk but all over the word different guidelines suggest different approaches. ESC/ESH guidelines do not suggest any treatment especially for patients at low CV risk as confirmed also by more recent guideline by International Society of Hypertension [1, 2]. American guidelines include patients with Systolic BP of 130–139 and/or a diastolic BP of 85–89 mmHg as stage I hypertension despite treatment is reserved for higher BP values [2].

Whether or not patients with high BP values should be considered at increased cardiovascular risk is still debate. In this issue of Journal of Human Hypertension, Maloberti et al. analyze the prevalence of hypertension mediated target organ damage (HMOD) in a population of blood donors with high normal BP [3]. Patients were selected from the blood donor list of S. Gerardo Hospital (Monza, Italy) and the Desio Hospital (Desio, Italy) and thus included relatively healthy populations, without prevalent cardiovascular disease. Smoking habits, prevalence of overweight and diabetes were relatively frequent.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Advanced Biomedical Science, Federico II University of Naples, Naples, Italy

    Costantino Mancusi, Christian Basile & Ilaria Fucile

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  1. Costantino Mancusi
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  2. Christian Basile
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  3. Ilaria Fucile
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CM drafted the manuscript, IF and CB review the manuscript and gave final approval.

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Correspondence to Costantino Mancusi.

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Mancusi, C., Basile, C. & Fucile, I. High normal blood pressure value, is the patient at increased CV risk?. J Hum Hypertens 36, 589–590 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-022-00664-2

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