US guidelines say blood pressure of 120/80 mm Hg is not "normal"

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7399.1104-a

BMJ 2003;326:1104 (24 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7399.1104-a

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US guidelines say blood pressure of 120/80 mm Hg is not "normal"

Janice Hopkins Tanne

New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

New US guidelines on hypertension take a stronger approach,reclassifying "high normal" blood pressure as "pre-hypertension"and calling for aggressive treatment, firstly by changing lifestyleand then with drugs.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NationalInstitutes of Health, 39 professional, public, and voluntaryagencies, and seven federal agencies issued the seventh reportof the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation,and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7).

The report was presented at the American Society of Hypertensionmeeting in New York last week and is being published in the Journal of the American Medical Association(2003;289: 2560-72[Abstract/Free Full Text]).Related guidelines from the National Heart, Lung, and BloodInstitute are on the institute's website (www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/hypertension).

The new guidelines categorise blood pressure as normal (<120/80mm Hg), pre-hypertension (120/80 to 139/89), stage 1 hypertension(140/90 to 159/99), and stage 2 hypertension ( $>=$ 160/100 or . . . [Full text of this article]

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