New Delhi: Indian doctors treating patients with high blood pressure should revise the target values to 130/80 or lower from the current 140/90, a senior hypertension specialist has said, citing new American and European guidelines.

Blood pressure levels higher than 130/80 should be viewed as a "warning signal" of impending disease progression and complications of hypertension, said C. Venkata S. Ram, senior consultant at Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, and founder member of the American Society of Hypertension.

Cardiologists say such a revision would mean that tens of thousands of more people across the country would need to seek ways of lowering their blood pressure levels, but not necessarily through drug treatment.

The Indian Hypertension Guidelines, published in 2013 in the Journal of the Association of Physicians of India, define blood pressure levels between 130-139/80-89 as "high normal", 120-129/below 80 as "normal", and below 120/below 80 as "optimal".

These guidelines have prompted some doctors to view readings slightly below 140/90 - for instance, 137/88 - as acceptable.

"This needs to change, the goal should be 130/80 or below," said Ram, who has argued, in a commentary published on Sunday in the Indian Heart Journal, that 130-80 should be the "non-negotiable therapeutic goal" for Indians.

Panels of experts under the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association converged on 130/80 as a common treatment goal in November 2017, and the European Society of Cardiology and European Society of Hypertension followed suit in June 2018.

"Given our huge burden of untreated or poorly treated hypertension, these guidelines are even more relevant to us in India," Ram told The Telegraph.

Untreated or poorly treated hypertension can lead to heart disease, strokes or life-threatening kidney damage. India's National Family Health Survey, a nationwide government exercise, had found in 2015-16 that 11 per cent of men and 7 per cent of women had blood pressure values above 140/90.

Studies have suggested that only about half of Indian patients with hypertension are diagnosed in time. About half of those diagnosed do not, for various reasons, receive adequate treatment, and half of those on treatment fail to attain their target blood pressure values.#Cardiologists say that a 130/80 target would dramatically increase the numbers of patients who would need to control their blood pressure levels.

They also assert that not all patients need to start drug treatment. "Blood pressure readings need to be taken with care, and repeated for reliability," said Brian Pinto, a senior cardiologist at the Holy Family Hospital, Mumbai.

"The patients should first be recommended diet control, weight loss, reduction of salt, exercise, and the cessation of smoking. Studies have established that lifestyle changes can lower blood pressure by six to 10 points."