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In 2017, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) released a new guideline with a lower blood pressure (BP) threshold for diagnosing hypertension (systolic BP, 130 mm Hg; diastolic BP, 80 mm Hg); drug treatment was advised for some patients with systolic BPs of 130 to 139 mm Hg or diastolic BPs of 80 to 89 mm Hg and for everyone with systolic BPs ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic BPs ≥90 mm Hg (NEJM JW Gen Med Dec 15 2017 and J Am Coll Cardiol 2018; 71:e127).
In this study, researchers determined that about 70 million people in the U.S. and 267 million people in China (age range, 45–75) would be classified as having hypertension based on these new recommendations — increases of 27% and 45%, respectively, compared…