Hypertension is the leading cause of death in human being, which shows high prevalence and associated complications that increase the mortality and morbidity. Controlling blood pressure (BP) is very important because it is well known that lowering high BP effectively improves patients’ prognosis. This review aims to provide a focused update of the 2018 Korean Hypertension Society Guidelines for the management of hypertension. The importance of ambulatory BP and home BP monitoring was further emphasized not only for the diagnosis but also for treatment target. By adopting corresponding BPs, the updated guideline recommended out-of-office BP targets for both standard and intensive treatment. Based on the consensus on corresponding BPs and Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) revisit, the updated guidelines recommended target BP in high-risk patients below 130/80 mmHg and it applies to hypertensive patients with three or more additional cardiovascular risk factors, one or more risk factors with diabetes, or hypertensive patients with subclinical organ damages, coronary or vascular diseases, heart failure, chronic kidney disease with proteinuria, and cerebral lacunar infarction. Cerebral infarction and chronic kidney disease are also high-risk factors for cardiovascular disease. However, due to lack of evidence, the target BP was generally determined at < 140/90 mmHg in patients with those conditions as well as in the elderly. Updated contents regarding the management of hypertension in special situations are also discussed.

Bae MH, et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2014 Apr;29(4):519-526. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2014.29.4.519

Bae KH, et al. Diabetes Metab J. 2018 Jan;42:e6. https://doi.org/10.4093/dmj.2017.0081

Choi H, et al. J Korean Med Sci. 2022 May;37(21):e167. https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2022.37.e167

Background and Objectives: Data is still limited regarding clinical outcomes of rotational atherectomy (RA) after percutaneous coronary intervention. We sought to evaluate clinical outcomes of RA. Materials and Methods: This multi-center registry enrolled patients who underwent RA during PCI from nine tertiary centers in Korea between January 2010 and October 2019. The primary endpoint was target-vessel failure (TVF; the composite outcome of cardiac death, target-vessel spontaneous myocardial infarction, or target-vessel revascularization). Results: Of 540 patients (583 lesions), the mean patient age was 71.4 ± 0.4 years, 323 patients (59.8%) were men, and 305 patients (56.5%) had diabetes mellitus. Technical success rate was 96.4%. In-hospital major adverse cerebral and cardiac events occurred in 63 cases (10.8%). At 1.5 years, 72 (16.0%) of TVFs were occurred. We evaluated independent predictors of TVF, which included current smoker (hazard ratio (HR), 1.92; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.17–3.16; p = 0.01), chronic renal disease (HR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.14–3.08; p = 0.013), history of cerebrovascular attack (HR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.24-3.68; p = 0.006), left ventricle ejection fraction (HR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.97–0.999; p = 0.037), and left main disease (HR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.11–3.37; p = 0.019). Conclusions: From this registry, we demonstrated acceptable success rates, in-hospital and mid-term clinical outcomes of RA in the DES era.