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First look at the new 2018 European Guidelines for the treatment of high blood pressure

2018 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and European Society of Hypertension (ESH) Joint Guidelines for the Management of Arterial Hypertension

Hypertension


A first look at the new European Guidelines for the treatment of high blood pressure was presented at the European Society of Hypertension meeting in Barcelona on June 9th 2018. These long-awaited guidelines have been jointly developed by clinicians representing the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Society of Hypertension (ESH). The guidelines provide recommendations for doctors across Europe about how to diagnose high blood pressure, evaluate risk, and when and how to treat high blood pressure and reduce risk, with both lifestyle advice and medications. The development of the guidelines was led by Prof. Bryan Williams (ESC Chairperson), London UK, and Prof. Giuseppe Mancia (ESH Chairperson), Milan Italy, as lead authors.

Professor Bryan Williams, University College London 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”.

Professor Giuseppe Mancia, University Milano-Bicocca Milan said “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 recognized 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).

ENDS

 

Notes to editor

Globally, over 1 billion people have hypertension (1). As populations age and adopt more sedentary lifestyles, the worldwide prevalence of hypertension will continue to rise towards 1.5 billion by 2025. Elevated BP is the leading global contributor to premature death, accounting for almost 10 million deaths in 2015, 4.9 million due to ischaemic heart disease and 3.5 million due to stroke. Hypertension is also a major risk factor for heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, peripheral artery disease, and cognitive decline.

Contacts for media queries:

ESH

eshcouncilsecretariat@eshonline.org

ESC Press Office

Tel: +33 (0)4 8987 2499

Mobile: +336 (0) 2314 5784

Email: press@escardio.org

References

(1) NCD Risk Factor Collaboration. Worldwide trends in blood pressure from 1975 to 2015: a pooled analysis of 1479 population-based measurement studies with 19.1 million participants. Lancet (London, England) 2017;389(10064):37-55.

 

About the European Society of Cardiology

The European Society of Cardiology brings together health care professionals from more than 150 countries, working to advance cardiovascular medicine and help people lead longer, healthier lives.

About the European Society of Hypertension

The main purpose of the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) is to provide a stable and organised European platform dedicated to scientific research and knowledge and to improving hypertension prevention, treatment and control.