New Challenges for Hypertension Treatment

In Mexico around 22.3 million adult Mexicans have hypertension. An estimated 65 million adult Americans, or nearly one in four of the adult population of the United States, have hypertension. However, with the new classification from 2017 ACC/AHA guidelines which considered >= 130/80 mmHg as the new cutoff point to diagnosis of hypertension, the number of patients is at least twice, in other words around 40 million adult Mexicans potentially have hypertension. Although this new classification is directed to be more efficient in the changes of life style and nondrug strategies to stage one hypertension the real word evidence suggest that we need to be more careful in the selection of patients to be introduced in a drug therapy strategy. Elevations in systemic arterial pressures have been associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality including cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, heart failure and stroke. It remains one of the most reversible causes of various disease states. This article aims to review current blood pressure (BP) targets and medical therapies for hypertension in the modern era, recognizing varying clinical characteristics such as comorbidities and patient risk profile. (C) 2018 IMSS. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.