Global Impact of 2017 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Hypertension Guidelines A Perspective From Japan

The 2017 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology (AHA/ACC) guidelines for the prevention, detection, evaluation, and management of high blood pressure (BP) in adults were recently released. 1 The core concept in these guidelines is earlier and tighter BP control over 24 hours, with the aim of providing more sustained target organ protection and cardiovascular disease prevention. These guidelines lower the threshold of hypertension diagnosis and target BP levels to 130/80 mm Hg. This direction of strict BP control with a new definition and universal target goal for hypertension will be the topic of debate among the guideline developing committee members of the Japanese Society of Hypertension.(2)