Title:Hypertension: Quo Vadis?
VOLUME: 10 ISSUE: 6
Author(s):Claudio Borghi
Affiliation:Department of Internal Medicine, Aging and Kidney Diseases, S. Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Via Albertoni 15 - Pad. 2, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
Keywords:Blood pressure, diagnosis, hypertension, management, perspectives, therapeutics
Abstract:High blood pressure (BP) along with smoking habit and lipid disorders are the most important and modifiable
risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. However, the prevalence of high BP has grown progressively over time with a
progressive increase not only in the absolute number of patients but in the proportion of those showing BP values out of
control. The increasing world-wide prevalence of hypertension and the related increase in burden of the disease due to diagnosis,
treatment and management of the complications mandates both Health Authorities and research institutions to
find out new strategies to improve the BP control. So, one of the main questions is which are the possible perspectives for
the future of high BP management, and in particular how can we face the problem of hypertension in the near future? Four
main points will be shortly discussed: the genetic contribution to hypertension development and control, the availability of
effective preventive strategies, the improvement of disease management, and the role of extensive control of concomitant
risk factors. It is relatively easy to suppose that the integration of the best available knowledge with the more recent diagnostic
and therapeutic achievements will improve the management of hypertension through a more effective detection of
subjects at risk who will undergo an earlier diagnosis leading to a more tailored, tolerated and effective treatment of the
hypertensive disease. This means that the future direction of the hypertension management is the simpler: the patient instead
of the disease.
