ABSTRACT
The 2017 Guidelines on hypertension of the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association, which proposed values of 130/80 mmHg as the cutoff points for the onset of hypertension, aroused great interest. This recommendation is based in the SPRINT study (The Systolic Pressure Intervention Trial), which included hypertensive patients over 50 years of age, non-diabetic, without a history of stroke and with a low representation of subjects with a history of coronary artery disease (16%). A group with intensive anti-hypertensive therapy (pressure achieved 121.5 mmHg) achieved a significantly lower cardiovascular risk as compared with a group with standard therapy (pressure achieved 134.6 mmHg). The Guide proposes immediate pharmacological therapy in diabetic hypertensive patients, in those with stage 3 chronic kidney disease or with persistent albuminuria, and in patients with atherosclerotic disease. The Guideline does not include the management of isolated systolic hypertension of the elderly and did not consider studies that show an increased risk when pressure is reduced below 130/80 mmHg in patients with coronary disease, peripheral vascular disease, diabetes mellitus or chronic renal failure. The new classification of hypertension would increase the number of hypertensive patients in our country by more than one million, would increase the risk associated with diastolic pressure reductions in older adults and ignores the evidence indicating a risk associated with reductions below 130/80 mmHg in patients with diabetes, with chronic renal failure or with atherosclerotic disease. Therefore, it is advisable to maintain a threshold of 140/90 mmHg and perform a careful and gradual management of blood pressure in the latter group of hypertensive patients.