Summary The NICE clinical guideline on hypertension covers: - how doctors should find out whether someone has high blood pressure
- how doctors should assess someone's risk of developing problems with their heart or blood vessels, such as a heart attack or stroke (also called 'cardiovascular disease')
- how lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet and exercise can affect blood pressure
- the use of medicines to lower blood pressure
- how high blood pressure should be monitored
These recommendations apply to primary care, that is, treatment by a GP or practice nurse. They do not apply to hospital care. This guideline does not look at screening for hypertension (routine checking of blood pressure in healthy people to detect early disease), hypertension during pregnancy or the specialist management of secondary hypertension (where the high blood pressure is happening because of another medical problem). This guideline is an update of advice on high blood pressure that NICE produced in 2004. The advice on medicines for high blood pressure has changed, but all the other advice is the same. |
