Seven Deadly Sins in Hypertension Management: In-Depth Analysis of the Errors on a Journey from Riva-Rocci to Myocardial Fibrosis

Abstract

Medicine is perhaps the only science that values knowledge of the most recent scientific publications more than its history over time. Medical epistemology shows that some mistakes and successes are so close that we often do not readily differentiate between them. The production of medical knowledge makes us understand that knowledge is transitory and theories need to be revalidated, rectified, or polished, if not destroyed and built again on other bases; paradigms that are renewed move science. With this critical view, it was necessary to access how much knowledge about arterial hypertension has been built over the last 130 years, since the measurement of blood pressure began to be widespread and become routine in medical practice until the present day. This critical review was focused on errors in the interpretation of acquired knowledge, seven of which have been identified, deeply discussed, and condemned as sins due to the delay in being recognized, thus allowing the lives of people with this cardiovascular pathology to be shortened.