Family Medicine

Answer 5 Only approximately 10% of patients on medical therapy for hypertension have their blood pressure controlled to less than 140/90 mm Hg. Approximately 25% of patients with known hypertension have their condition under control. Multiple blood pressure measurements should be obtained before making the diagnosis. Several patients have labile blood pressures, and experience “white coat hypertension” in the office. Although these patients are at higher risk for developing sustained hypertension later in life, they do not need medical treatment for labile blood pressures alone. Hypertension is known as “the silent killer,” because affected patients are usually asymptomatic until complications occur.1 REFERENCE 1. Beers MH, Berkow R, editors. The Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy. 17th ed. Whitehouse Station (NJ): Merck Research Laboratories; 1999:1629-46. Click here to return to the questions

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