The prevalence of arterial hypertension, defined as a persistent systolic blood pressure ≥ 130 mm Hg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 80 mm Hg according to American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) or a persistent systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mm Hg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mm according to the International Society of Hypertension (ISH), or patients taking anti-hypertensive medication, is approximately 47% in the United States and 55% in Europe [1–5].
