A first look at the new European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and European Society of Hypertension (ESH) Joint Guidelines for the Management of Arterial Hypertension has been presented at the ESH meeting in Barcelona, Spain.
These guidelines on arterial hypertension have been jointly developed by clinicians representing the ESC and ESH and provide recommendations for doctors across Europe about how to diagnose high blood pressure, evaluate risk, as well as when and how to treat high blood pressure and reduce risk.
They were led by Professor Bryan Williams, chairperson of ESC, London, UK, and Professor Giuseppe Mancia, ESH chairperson, Milan, Italy.
The most important in Europe
Williams said: “These clinical guidelines are one of the most important in Europe because high blood pressure affects so many people, over 25% of the adult population.
“The focus of the guideline is to improve the treatment of high blood pressure and blood pressure control in treated patients, which at present is not as good as it should be.”
Most effective initial treatment
Mancia added: “The 2018 ESC/ESH guidelines issue new recommendations on how to optimally treat hypertension. Drug therapy extends to additional groups of patients.
“Also, blood pressure values to aim at with treatment are lower than in the past. In addition, combination therapy is now recognised as the most effective initial treatment strategy in most patients.”
The full text of the new joint guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension will be published on 25 August 2018 in parallel with a corresponding presentation during the ESC Congress 2018 in Munich (August 25-29 2018).
About hypertension
Hypertension occurs when the blood pressure readings are consistently shown to be 140/90mmHg or higher. It causes 42% of all deaths across the WHO European Region every year.
The WHO Health 2020 policy identifies hypertension as the world’s most prevalent preventable disease.
