Screen all adults for high blood pressure, US panel recommends

All adults aged 18 and older should be screened for high blood pressure, but before treatment starts the diagnosis should be confirmed by either home blood pressure monitoring or, preferably, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM), the US Preventive Services Task Force has concluded.1

The evidence that ABPM was best for diagnosing hypertension was “convincing,” the task force said in recommendations released on 13 October, adding, “Although the criteria for establishing hypertension varied across studies, there was significant discordance between the office diagnosis of hypertension and 12 and 24 hour average blood pressures using ABPM, with significantly fewer patients requiring treatment based on ABPM.”

High blood pressure, which often …