Prehypertension and the cardiometabolic syndrome: pathological and clinical consequences

Prehypertension is the category of blood pressure (BP) defined as systolic BP between 120 and 139 mmHg and diastolic BP between 85 and 89 mmHg. Prehypertension is a continuum to hypertension and is emerging as an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The definition of the cardiometabolic syndrome is a cluster of several risk factors such as abdominal obesity, prehypertension or hypertension, dyslipidemia and prediabetes. Prevention by lifestyle intervention and also treatment of individual components is recommended, given that most subjects with metabolic syndrome fall into the high-risk category. There are several studies with dietary approaches, which showed that these approaches helped in stopping the progression of hypertension and also improved the metabolic conditions. Several large trials are under way to study several antihypertensive drugs to delay the development of hypertension. Identifying early cardiovascular disease in asymptomatic individuals provides a better guide to the need for individualized preventive therapy than traditional risk factor assessment.