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Updated national and international hypertension guidelines: a review of current recommendations
Sverre Kjeldsen1, Ross D Feldman, Liu Lisheng
1Department of Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine, Oslo University Hospital Ullevaal, University of Oslo, 0450, Oslo, Norway.
Insights
Global blood pressure control remains a challenge despite available treatments. This review compares international hypertension guidelines, finding general agreement but highlighting areas needing more research, especially for elderly blood pressure targets.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Public Health
Background:
- Uncontrolled blood pressure (hypertension) remains a significant global health issue.
- Despite effective pharmacological treatments, achieving optimal blood pressure control is challenging.
- New national and international guidelines aim to improve hypertension diagnosis and treatment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare current and recently published hypertension management guidelines.
- To identify consensus and discrepancies among various international hypertension guidelines.
- To inform healthcare professionals and patients on best practices for hypertension management.
Main Methods:
- Systematic review and comparative analysis of guidelines from major international and national hypertension societies.
- Inclusion of guidelines from organizations including the American and European Societies of Hypertension, AHA/ACC/CDC, JNC8, and others.
- Identification of areas of agreement and disagreement in recommendations.
Main Results:
- General consensus exists across most reviewed guidelines regarding hypertension management.
- Key discrepancies were noted, particularly concerning target blood pressure ranges for elderly populations.
- Areas requiring further high-quality evidence for robust recommendations were identified.
Conclusions:
- While broad agreement exists in hypertension guidelines, specific areas require further investigation.
- Evidence gaps, especially for the elderly, necessitate additional clinical trials.
- Harmonizing guidelines could improve global hypertension control efforts.
Abstract:
Despite the availability of effective pharmacological treatments to aid the control of blood pressure, the global rate of uncontrolled blood pressure remains high. As such, further measures are required to improve blood pressure control. Recently, several national and international guidelines for the management of hypertension have been published. These aim to provide easily accessible information for healthcare professionals and patients to aid the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. In this review, we have compared new and current guidelines from the American and International Societies of Hypertension; the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention; the panel appointed to the Eighth Joint National Committee; the European Societies of Hypertension and Cardiology; the French Society of Hypertension; the Canadian Hypertension Education Program; the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (UK); the Taiwan Society of Cardiology and the Chinese Hypertension League. We have identified consensus opinion regarding best practises for the management of hypertension and have highlighted any discrepancies between the recommendations. In general there is good agreement between the guidelines, however, in some areas, such as target blood pressure ranges for the elderly, further trials are required to provide sufficient high-quality evidence to form the basis of recommendations.
