Saturday, August 27, 2011

New prescription guidelines for hypertension

Reuters
25 August 2011
TODAY (Singapore)
(c) 2011. MediaCorp Press Ltd.
 
Taking repeated blood pressure readings over a 24-hour period rather than a one-off measurement in

the clinic is the most cost-effective way of deciding who should be prescribed drugs for hypertension,
according to a study published in The Lancet medical journal yesterday.

The findings in favour of so-called ambulatory blood pressure monitoring were immediately adopted by
Britain’s health costs watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

Professor Bryan Williams of Leicester University said the change “is likely to be replicated across the
world”.

Ambulatory blood pressure measurement involves the patient wearing a blood pressure cuff attached to
an automatic blood pressure machine for 24 hours. Measurements are taken typically half hourly during
the day and hourly during the night.

An estimated one billion people around the world have high blood pressure. REUTERS

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