Highlights of the 2019 Japanese Society of Hypertension Guidelines and perspectives on the management of Asian hypertensive patients

Abstract

Unlike other international guidelines but in accord with the earlier Japanese Society of Hypertension (JSH) guidelines, the 2019 JSH guidelines (“JSH 2019”) continue to emphasize the importance of out-of-office blood pressure (BP) measurements obtained with a home BP device. Another unique characteristic of JSH 2019 is that it sets clinical questions about the management of hypertension that are based on systematic reviews of updated evidence. JSH 2019 states that individuals with office BP < 140/90 mm Hg do not have normal BP. The final decisions regarding the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension should be performed based on out-of-office BP values together with office BP measurements. For hypertensive adults with comorbidities, the office BP goal is usually <130/80 mm Hg and the home BP goal is <125/75 mm Hg. Recommendations of JSH 2019 would be valuable for not only Japanese hypertensive patients but also Asian hypertensive patients, who share the same features including higher incidence of stroke compared with that of myocardial infarction and a steeper blood pressure-vascular event relationship.