Hypertension treatment guidelines revised

Hypertension or increased blood pressure, a common lifestyle disease has been recently revised by the American Heart Association and is now defined as 3 consecutive BP readings of 130/80 mm of Hg. Previously Hypertension was diagnosed only when blood pressure readings measured 140/90 mm of Hg. The move is beneficial as it identifies the condition early and helps cut the mortality risk by nearly a third, opine the doctors.

Telangana Chapter of the Cardiological Society also recommends revised guidelines

The Telangana Chapter of the Cardiological Society of India is recommending this revised set of American guidelines to treat hypertension and this has triggered deliberations among city doctors. They also are contemplating an Indian registry for Hypertension.

“Two massive studies have led to the revision of guidelines. The Indian subjects and others from 32 countries were part of one of the trials. We are going to start an Indian registry and give out guidelines for Indian patients, but until then, we endorse the American guidelines,” said Sai Ravi Shankar, general secretary of the State chapter.

If these revised guidelines are accepted and brought into practice, it will exponentially increase the number of hypertensive patients in our country. But all said and done identifying the high risk population will create awareness about the lifestyle modifications that can control the progress of this chronic disease. And as all of us know, prevention is always better than cure.