Blood pressure readings of 130/80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or higher taken at home can be used to diagnose hypertension in white, black and Hispanic U.S. adults, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Hypertension.
Blood pressure readings of 130/80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or higher taken at home can be used to diagnose hypertension in white, black and Hispanic U.S. adults, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Hypertension.
“Until now, recommendations for diagnosing high blood pressure with measurements done at home were primarily from Japanese and European studies,” said Wanpen Vongpatanasin, M.D., study author, professor of medicine and hypertension director at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “We didn’t know if these recommendations actually applied to U.S. adults.”
Researchers analyzed large multi-ethnic studies that compared home blood pressure to clinic measurements of primarily young and middle-aged adults in Dallas, Texas and Durham, North Carolina. In 420 participants in the North Carolina clinic, high blood pressure readings (130/80) were confirmed with similar readings at home. In 3,132 participants in the Dallas study, researchers determined risks of stroke, heart attack and death associated with a clinic systolic blood pressure reading of 130 mm Hg. During the 11-year follow up, researchers also determined that people with high blood pressure levels measured at home had the same heart disease risk as people with similar levels measured by medical professionals.
Vongpatanasin added that the findings correlate with the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology 2017 blood pressure guideline.
Read more at American Heart Association
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