Background: The initial step to successfully treat hypertension and prevent cardiovascular event is to follow the evidence based medicine through guidelines.
Methods: We have compared the structure and contents of guidelines for hypertension management across countries. The study compares the recommendations of most recent Joint National Committee (JNC 8) 2013, American College of Cardiology & American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) 2017, European Society of Cardiology & European Society of Hypertension (ESC/ESH) 2018 and International Society of Hypertension(ISH) 2020.Study focus on prevalence contrast among the guidelines on when, how and in whom to start the treatment, which is a major health implications of the guidelines.
Results: The four guidelines disagree for the cut of values in definition of hypertension. Information concerning blood pressure measurement, the estimation of cardiovascular risk and the antihypertensive drugs proposed for the initial treatment also varied. Due to difference in cut of values of BP at the definition of hypertension there is a increased chance a patient may be misclassified to one of the four phenotypes of BP measurements from office and out of office, based to which guidelines are followed by the physician.
Conclusion: Guidelines are essential to guide the treatment of hypertension. The differences in guidelines causes a confusion among general practitioners but also to the hypertension experts about the correct approach in use of guidelines in clinical practise.
Impact Factor
2022: 6.012
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