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Focus on today’s evidence while keeping an eye on the future: lessons derived from hypertension in women

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 36, pages 882–886 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

While evidence-based medicine has contributed enormously to the uniformity and rationale of patient care, it is necessary that we anticipate changes in order to implement their rapid translation to practice. The purpose of this review is to expose three issues regarding cardiovascular health in women, including milestones to reflect the pace at which these are incorporated into public policies. Two of these matters, as changes in the thresholds of normal blood pressure in gestation and in nonpregnant women, need further evidence and deserve to be retrospectively analyzed in high-quality databases. The third subject derives from the association of remote cardiovascular complications of hypertensive pregnancies, an example of the unnecessary delay of more than two decades to install a wide prevention strategy when the health system is not on the watch.

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Fig. 1: Diagram depicting the main mechanisms that lead to the generalized endothelial dysfunction that constitutes the pathological and clinical expression of preeclampsia.

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Acknowledgements

I value the encouragement and advice of Professor Mónica Acevedo, MD, along with the preparation of the manuscript.

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  1. Departamento de Nefrología, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica, Santiago, Chile

    Gloria Valdés

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  1. Gloria Valdés
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GV conceived the review and its topics, performed the literature search, selected the articles and described the historical sequence of each issue, drafted all versions of the manuscript, depicted the pathophysiology of preeclamptic in Fig. 1, and selected/included and expanded topics suggested by Professor Mónica Acevedo.

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Correspondence to Gloria Valdés.

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Valdés, G. Focus on today’s evidence while keeping an eye on the future: lessons derived from hypertension in women. J Hum Hypertens 36, 882–886 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-021-00652-y

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