Are the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology high blood pressure guidelines fit for global purpose? Thoughts from the International Society of Hypertension

Abstract

In 2017, the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American Heart Association (AHA), and 9 other American societies released guidelines for the prevention, detection, evaluation, and management of high blood pressure (BP) in adults.(1) These guidelines are perhaps the most controversial set of US guidelines--even more so than those attributed to some of the committee set up to produce the guidelines of the Eighth Joint National Committee in 2014.(2)