Home BP of 130/80 mm Hg ID’d as Threshold for Stage 1 HTN

THURSDAY, Nov. 1, 2018 (HealthDay News) — A home blood pressure (BP) reading of 130/80 mm Hg should be considered the threshold for stage 1 hypertension, according to a study published online Oct. 29 in Hypertension.

Wanpen Vongpatanasin, M.D., from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues used a regression-based approach to identify home BP thresholds for stage 1 hypertension (BP ≥130/80 mm Hg) in the Dallas Heart Study (DHS; 5,768 participants) and the North Carolina Masked Hypertension study (NCMH; 420 participants). They used an outcome-derived approach based on the composite of all-cause mortality or cardiovascular events in the DHS cohort to assess home BP thresholds.

The researchers found that the regression-derived thresholds for home BP corresponding to clinic BP for stage 1 hypertension were 129/80, 130/80, and 126/78 mm Hg for blacks, whites, and Hispanics, respectively, among untreated participants. Similar results were seen in the NCMH cohort. Compared with whites and Hispanics, blacks had higher 11-year composite cardiovascular and mortality events corresponding to clinic systolic BP >130 mm Hg (13.3 versus 5.98 and 5.52 percent, respectively). In untreated DHS participants, the outcome-derived home systolic BP thresholds corresponding to stage 1 hypertension were 130, 129, and 131 mm Hg for blacks, whites, and Hispanics, respectively, using a race/ethnicity-specific composite outcome.

“It’s important to measure blood pressure at home because clinic readings might not reflect a person’s true blood pressure,” Vongpatanasin said in a statement.

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