Hypertension

What is high blood pressure(BP) or hypertension?

High blood pressure or hypertension is defined as persistent elevation of systolic BP of 140 mmHg or greater and/or diastolic BP of 90 mmHg or greater.

What is blood pressure?

Systolic blood pressure is the pressure when the heart contracted. Diastolic blood pressure is the pressure when the heart was relaxed.

Blood pressure is written with two readings:

• Above readings shows the systolic pressure.
• Below reading shows the diastolic pressure.

If the blood pressure is written as 120/80 mmHg, this shows your systolic pressure is 120 mmHg and your diastolic pressure is 80 mmHg. MmHg is millimeters Mercury.

Do you have high blood pressure?

Normal blood pressure is when the systolic blood pressure between 120 and 139 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure 80 to 89 mmHg.

If one or two readings were always greater than the value, you may have high blood pressure or hypertension.

Hypertension categories

Category	Systolic (mmHg)		Diastolic (mmHg)
Optimal Prehypertension Hypertension Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3	<120 120-139 140-159 160-179 ≥180	and and/or and/or and/or and/or	<80 80-89 90-99 100-109 ≥110

                                                                                                                (Ministry of Health Malaysia)

Classes of hypertension

High blood pressure/hypertension is divided into two classes, namely;

1)    Primary hypertension - high blood disease that are not related to a specific disease. This disease represents about 90% - 95% of hypertension patients.

2)   Secondary hypertension - high blood disease that caused by a particular disease.
Among the known secondary causes are:

• Kidney disease
• Diseases of the endocrine system
• Blood vessel disease

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