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Article: Earlier treatment may prevent consequences of hypertension: by aggressively treating patients with 'high normal' blood pressure, doctors hope to improve outcomes.(PREVENTION)
- Article from:
- Heart Advisor
- Article date:
- September 1, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Belvoir Media Group, LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Until recently, the traditional definition of hypertension only classified patients with sustained blood pressure readings of 140/90 mmHg or higher as having this condition, despite the fact that it took years to get to those numbers.
But doctors are now more aggressive in treating patients whose readings fall below those specific numbers in an effort to prevent them from reaching the hypertensive state.
"We should be watching blood pressures more frequently in patients with 'high normal' readings, both by more frequent office visits as well as home or 24-hour ambulatory monitoring," says James Gutierrez, MD, an internist with Cleveland Clinic's ...