Blood pressure

摘要

Thousands more people could be eligible for blood pressure treatment under new National Institute for Health and Care Excellence(NICE)draft guidance.The updated guideline on hypertension recommends reducing the threshold at which the treatment should be considered.It advises that blood pressure-lowering medicine should be offered to people aged under 80 years with a diagnosis of stage 1 hypertension who have an estimated ten-year risk of cardiovascular disease(CVD)of 10% or more.Previously,the threshold was 20%.It is estimated by NICE that around 450,000 men and 270,000 women in England would fall into the category of having stage 1 hypertension and a CVD risk of between 10% and 20%.However,NICE said it was”difficult to predict what impact using the lower CVD risk threshold will have in practice”owing to variation in how its previous guidance,published in 2011,was being implemented.NICE estimated that around 50% of people above the 20% CVD risk threshold were currently receiving the blood pressure drugs.