The 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association vs Hypertension Canada High Blood Pressure Guidelines and Potential Implications

In this report we examine the differences between the 2017 Hypertension Canada and 2017 American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) blood pressure (BP) guidelines regarding the proportions of individuals with a diagnosis of hypertension, BP above thresholds for treatment initiation, and BP below targets using the CARTaGENE cohort. Compared with the 2017 Canadian guidelines, the 2017 ACC/AHA guidelines would result in increases of 8.7% in hypertension diagnosis and 3.4% of individuals needing treatment, with 17.2% having a different BP target. In conclusion, implementing the 2017 ACC/AHA hypertension guidelines in Canada could result in major effects for millions of Canadians.