New guidelines 'to revolutionise blood pressure diagnosis, treatment'

Irish Sun (ANI) Wednesday 24th August, 2011

New guidelines for the medical profession issued by NICE and developed in conjunction with the British Hypertension Society (BHS) are set to revolutionise the way blood pressure is diagnosed and treated.

It will mark the first time in over a century that the way blood pressure is routinely monitored by GPs has been changed.

A major feature of the new guideline is the recommendation that high blood pressure should be diagnosed using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, a technique in which the patient wears a monitor for 24 hours to gauge how high their blood pressure is.

University of Leicester Professor Bryan Williams chaired the NICE hypertension guideline.

He believed that this new approach will mean that as many as 25 percent of people diagnosed as having high blood pressure using the current method of diagnosis, i.e. repeated measurement of blood pressure in the doctor's clinic, may not be hypertensive and may not need treatment.

"This new guideline is going to change the way blood pressure is diagnosed and treated for millions of people in the UK and around the world. The new approach will be more accurate in diagnosing high blood pressure and will ensure that the right people get treated," said Williams.

"We are using new technologies to improve the way we diagnose high blood pressure. It means that we will be more accurate in treating those who need treatment and in avoiding treating those who don't," he added.

The research has been published in the Lancet. (ANI)