Editors choice: recent highlights from the journal of human hypertension

Abstract

The field of hypertension has seen marked advances over the last few years. At the Journal of Human Hypertension, we certainly hope that we have enriched the world literature, with particular emphasis on aspects of human hypertension that would perhaps have a bearing on our everyday clinical practice. In this article, we highlight a selection of articles from 2009 that the editors feel were of particular interest to our readership. Pitfalls in blood pressure measurement and the clinical relevance of recommended targetsTarget blood pressure (BP) levels set by hypertension management guidelines have fallen considerably in the wake of large, randomized trials that have sought to clarify 'how low we should go'. However, the clinical relevance of such studies is limited by the fact that they (and the guidelines that followed) were based on office rather than ambulatory BP levels, and do not necessarily address the needs of individual patients, including those for whom aggressive BP lowering could be inappropriate and even, frankly, dangerous.In a study of 136 patients with sustained hypertension, attending two medical centres in Switzerland, and who were randomized to a strategy using 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring to manage antihypertensive treatment (to a target of o130/ 80 mm Hg) or a standard strategy using office BP (target o140/90 mm Hg), Conen et al.