Hypertension: Just Focus on Systolic Pressure in Over-50s

In a Viewpoint, published online in the Lancet today to coincide with presentation at the International Society of Hypertension meeting in Berlin, Germany, Drs Bryan Williams (Leicester Royal Infirmary, UK), Lars Lindholm (Umeå University Hospital, Sweden) and Peter Sever (Imperial College London, UK), say: "We believe that systolic blood pressure should become the sole defining feature of hypertension and key treatment target for people over age 50 years. "A renewed focus on systolic pressure will simplify the message for practitioners and for patients, will improve awareness and understanding of treatment objectives, and will ultimately lead to more effective treatment of high blood pressure. Such an initiative would have major public-health implications for the prevention of blood-pressure-related cardiovascular disease," they conclude. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/576215