title: Current Practice of Hypertension in India: Focus on Blood Pressure Goals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recommended Blood Pressure (BP) goals in elderly and those with co-morbid conditions like Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) vary in different Hypertension (HTN) management guidelines.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To understand currently followed BP goals and practices among the physicians involved in management of HTN in India.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, observational survey was conducted at 66thannual conference of Cardiological Society of India (CSICON-2014, Hyderabad). A structured questionnaire related to the BP goals and HTN practices was provided and responses from voluntarily participating physicians were collected. Data was analysed with descriptive statistics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two-hundred sixty physicians completed this survey. In their routine clinical practice, physicians most frequently referred to Joint National Committee (JNC) guidelines (63.85%) followed by Indian guidelines on HTN (14.23%). In patients aged 60 years and above, BP goal <140/90mmHg and <150/90mmHg was aimed by 43.46% and 33.85% of the physicians respectively. In HTN with Type 2 DM (T2DM), most physicians (61.92%) had a BP goal of <130/80mmHg. A target BP <130/80mmHg was aimed by 48.08% physicians in CKD without proteinuria and 68.85% physicians in CKD with proteinuria. In newly diagnosed hypertensives, treatment modification was practiced after 15, 20 and 30 days by 37.31%, 16.15% and 35.77% of the physicians respectively. Beta-blockers were considered as third-line agents in HTN without co-morbidities by 45% physicians. Ambulatory BP Monitoring (ABPM) is practiced only in few patients (<5%) by most (71.93%) physicians.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In practice, Indian physicians follow lower BP goals when compared to the recommendations from the most referred JNC guidelines. Increasing physicians' awareness to the changes in recommendations is the need.
authors.affiliation: Interventional Cardiologist, Department of Cardiology, Ruby Hall Clinic , Pune, Maharashtra, India .
authors.forename: Jagdish S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Hiremath
authors.affiliation: General Physician, Dev Clinic , Mahal, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India .
authors.forename: Vijay M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Katekhaye
authors.affiliation: Assistant Manager, Medical Services, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals , Mumbai, Maharashtra, India .
authors.forename: Vijay S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Chamle
authors.affiliation: Director, Medical Services, Emcure Pharmaceuticals , Pune, Maharashtra, India .
authors.forename: Rishi M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.affiliation: Head, Medical Services, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals , Mumbai, Maharashtra, India .
authors.forename: Amit I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Bhargava
keywords: Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring; Beta blocker; Diabetes; Hypertension guidelines