[American guidelines under high pressure !]

International guidelines on definitions, therapeutic targets and treatment of arterial hypertension are regularly published by national and international societies in order to help medical doctors to optimally screen and take charge of their patients and to apply the best evidence based medicine. Hypertension remains a major cause of mortality worldwide and is insufficiently well controlled. We present here the new 2017 American guidelines that harbor major changes compared with the previous ones. Even if the new 2017 American definitions and therapeutic targets will not be applied in Europe and Switzerland and perhaps even in United States, it is good to know them even if only to correctly follow medical literature and avoid a certain confusion in managing high blood pressure.