Overview of the 2025 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Blood Pressure Guideline: Perspective From Editors at the American Journal of Hypertension

The 2025 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology (AHA/ACC) Guideline for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Management of High Blood Pressure (BP) in Adults was published in August 2025 and comes at an important time.1 Blood pressure levels among US adults declined markedly from the 1970s, when the first US BP guidelines were published, through 2013-2014.2 However, data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicate that BP levels stopped declining, and the proportion of US adults with hypertension that had controlled BP did not increase over the last decade.3 In addition, there have been a number of studies with clinical practice implications conducted since the 2017 ACC/AHA BP guideline was published. As editors of the American Journal of Hypertension, we are committed to publishing science that provides data to clinicians, policy makers, and researchers that can improve health outcomes for individual patients, facilitate health systems in screening, detection, and management of high BP, and reduce the burden of hypertension and BP-related cardiovascular disease (CVD) in populations. Within this context, we review some key recommendations from the 2025 AHA/ACC BP guideline, additions and changes from the 2017 ACC/AHA BP guideline, and key evidence gaps noted by the guideline writing committee.