Editorial
Hypertension: Update 2017
Anna F. Dominiczak, Denise Kuo
A s Hypertension begins its 38th year, the current editorial
team, led by Editor-in-Chief Prof. Anna F. Dominiczak
and Deputy Editor Prof. Rhian M. Touyz, begins their sec-
ond 5-year term at the helm of this prestigious Journal. The
editors appreciate the time and effort our many readers have
spent reviewing manuscripts, submitting the best research to
Hypertension, and providing feedback that has improved the
Journal. Thank you for the commitment and energy.
Although the publishing landscape has changed over
the past 5 years, the goals for Hypertension, an American
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Heart Association (AHA) Journal, remain largely the same.
The editorial team continues working on (1) publishing
the highest quality original basic, clinical, and popula-
tion research relating to hypertension, (2) increasing the
readership and scientific importance of Hypertension, (3)
providing fair and quick reviews for submitted manuscripts
followed by rapid publication of all accepted articles, and
(4) serving well the international community of hyperten-
sion researchers and practitioners while being an important
vehicle for achieving the mission of the AHA. On behalf of
the entire editorial team, it is with pleasure that we share
with you a few key highlights from the past 12 months and
also provide a glimpse of what you may expect from the
Journal in 2017.
Top Papers Published in Hypertension
Each June, Hypertension editors select the top 1 or 2 articles
in each of 3 categories, basic science, clinical science, popula-
tion science, published in the Journal throughout the previous
calendar year. All six 2015 Top Paper Award articles,1–6 pub-
lished in 2015 and selected in 2016, were highly accessed by
readers and clearly novel and have important clinical implica-
tions. The 2015 award winning articles span a wide variety
of topics. Those topics include insomnia with physiological
hyperarousal, cardiac inflammation and fibrosis, mineralocor-
ticoid receptor antagonism, a meta-analysis of current diuret-
ics, intensive blood pressure lowering in diabetic patients, and
low diastolic blood pressure as a potential risk factor for recur-
rent cardiovascular events.
This year for the first time, corresponding authors of each
selected Top Paper were not only invited to attend the Council
The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the
American Heart Association.
From the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Science, University
of Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Correspondence to Anna F. Dominiczak, Hypertension, AHA, 7272
Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231-4596. E-mail hypertension@heart.org
(Hypertension. 2017;69:3-4.
DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.116.08683.)
© 2016 American Heart Association, Inc.
Hypertension is available at http://hyper.ahajournals.org
DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.116.08683
3
on Hypertension 2016 Scientific Sessions to accept the award
in person, but also had the opportunity to discuss the novelty
and clinical implications of their work in front of the cam-
era. The short interviews filmed in Orlando during the AHA
Council on Hypertension annual conference are available on
the AHA Science News YouTube channel (https://www.you-
tube.com/user/AHAScienceNews).
Clinical–Pathological Conferences
Conducting a Clinical–Pathological Conference (CPC) at the
European Society of Hypertension annual meeting has become
a regular event for Hypertension. Again in 2016, 2 cases were
presented. Dr David Calvet (Paris) presented an interesting
case about ischemic stroke risk in a patient with carotid artery
stenosis, and Dr Laurence Amar (Paris) led the international
audience through the discussion of a patient with primary aldo-
steronism but discordant hormonal and computed tomographic
findings.
This relatively new feature for Hypertension has proven
sufficiently popular to warrant expansion to 2 additional con-
ferences in 2016. Two CPC cases were presented for the first
time at the AHA Council on Hypertension annual conference
held in Orlando, FL, United States, 14 to 17 September. Also in
September, the International Society of Hypertension held its
biennial conference in Seoul, South Korea. This was an excel-
lent opportunity for Hypertension to conduct yet another CPC
session with local presenters and a global audience discussing
2 difficult cases.
The videos for all 6 CPC cases filmed in 2016 are avail-
able on the Hypertension website; accompanying manuscripts
will be published in future issues of the Journal.
Guidelines
Early in 2016, we invited many regional hypertension societies
to contribute to a guidelines debate series with the goal of bring-
ing opinions and comments of key leaders involved in regional
and international hypertension guidelines to the hypertension
community. Researchers representing Hypertension Canada,
Latin American Society of Hypertension, International Society
of Hypertension, and European Society of Hypertension shared
their opinions on the challenges faced by guideline writers and
clinicians referring to guidelines in their daily practice.7–10 We
look forward to learning how experts across the globe address
the difficult questions and concerns discussed in this series and
facing clinicians today when the next iteration of guidelines is
released over the next few years.
Coming in 2017
As part of our ongoing effort to improve the author experi-
ence with Hypertension, the Journal will feature a stream-
lined submission process early in 2017. Although there will
 4  Hypertension  January 2017
be a few visual and functional changes to the online sub-
mission form, the primary change will be a reduction in the
amount of information required to submit an article for peer
review.
There will be multiple opportunities for hypertension
researchers to participate in Journal-sponsored CPC case
presentations and discussions in 2017. As each CPC case
discussion is not only filmed but also transformed into an
article, each audience member significantly contributing to
the discussion has an opportunity to be a coauthor of the CPC
article. The first opportunity to participate in a CPC will be
in Milan at the 27th European Congress on Hypertension and
Cardiovascular Protection in June, and later in the year, there
will be another opportunity in San Francisco at the AHA
Council on Hypertension 2017 Scientific Sessions.
In summary, your Journal is thriving, and the editorial team
is poised to deliver the best possible science in the next 5 years.
We look forward to publishing the all-important hypertension
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guidelines, and we are also looking forward to receiving your
best articles in basic, clinical, and population research. Among
these, we would be particularly interested to publish on recent
advances in precision medicine because this theme grows in
significance in the United States and worldwide.
Disclosures
None.
References
1. Roush GC, Ernst ME, Kostis JB, Tandon S, Sica DA. Head-to-head com-
parisons of hydrochlorothiazide with indapamide and chlorthalidone:
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2. Li Y, Vgontzas AN, Fernandez-Mendoza J, Bixler EO, Sun Y, Zhou J,
Ren R, Li T, Tang X. Insomnia with physiological hyperarousal is asso-
ciated with hypertension. Hypertension. 2015;65:644–650. doi: 10.1161/
HYPERTENSIONAHA.114.04604.
3. Wang X, Wang HX, Li YL, Zhang CC, Zhou CY, Wang L, Xia YL,
Du J, Li HH. MicroRNA Let-7i negatively regulates cardiac inflam-
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HYPERTENSIONAHA.115.05548.
4. Bender SB, DeMarco VG, Padilla J, Jenkins NT, Habibi J, Garro
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receptor antagonism treats obesity-associated cardiac diastolic
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HYPERTENSIONAHA.114.04912.
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 Hypertension: Update 2017
Anna F. Dominiczak and Denise Kuo

Hypertension. 2017;69:3-4; originally published online December 5, 2016;

Downloaded from http://hyper.ahajournals.org/ by guest on November 4, 2017

doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.116.08683
Hypertension is published by the American Heart Association, 7272 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231
Copyright © 2016 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved.
Print ISSN: 0194-911X. Online ISSN: 1524-4563

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