Q: What is the difference between hypertensive urgency and hypertensive emergency?

Answer: 

Hypertensive urgency: is defined as severely elevated blood pressure (ie, systolic >180-220 mm Hg or diastolic >110- 120 mm Hg) with no evidence of target organ damage.

Hypertensive emergency: is defined as a recent significant increase over baseline blood pressure that is associated with target organ damage causing CVA, acute MI or angina, Renal insufficiency, Aortic dissection, Pulmonary edema, Eclampsia etc.

Clinical significance: Hypertensive emergencies require immediate therapy. In contrast, no evidence suggests a benefit from rapidly reducing blood pressure in patients with hypertensive urgency. In fact, such aggressive therapy may harm the patient, causing organ hypoperfusion.