Pharmacy Daily | Blood pressure change

NEW guidelines on the monitoring of blood pressure have been immediately adopted by Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), after the publication of a study on ambulatory hypertension testing in the Lancet journal. A team from Birmingham University compared the costeffectiveness of different blood pressure monitoring regimes in determining treatments. Taking measurements on a repeated basis over a 24 hour period was found to be a much better indicator of potential cardiovascular problems than oneoff readings during a visit to the doctor or pharmacy. Ambulatory measurements are typically taken half hourly during the day and hourly at night, with the report finding that the method was significantly more cost effective in both men and women of all ages. A spokesman for NICE said the change would affect the treatment of millions of people in the UK, and was “a step-change that is likely to be replicated across the world”.

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