Editors' Commentary on the 2023 ESH Management of Arterial Hypertension Guidelines

• Published in: Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. 1979) Tex. 1979), 2023-09, Vol.80 (9), p.1795-1799
• Main Authors: Whelton, Paul K, Flack, John M, Jennings, Garry, Schutte, Alta, Wang, Jiguang, Touyz, Rhian M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antihypertensive Agents - pharmacology; Antihypertensive Agents - therapeutic use; Blood Pressure; Blood Pressure Determination; Cardiology; Humans; Hypertension - drug therapy; Hypertension - therapy
• ISSN: 0194-911X; 1524-4563; 1524-4563
• DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.123.21592

Clinical practice guidelines are ideally suited to the provision of advice on the prevention, diagnosis, evaluation, and management of high blood pressure (BP). The recently published European Society of Hypertension (ESH) 2023 ESH Guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension is the latest in a long series of high BP clinical practice guidelines. It closely resembles the 2018 European Society of Cardiology/ESH guidelines, with incremental rather than major changes. Although the ESH guidelines are primarily written for European clinicians and public health workers, there is a high degree of concordance between its recommendations and those in the other major BP guidelines. Despite the large number of national and international BP guidelines around the world, general population surveys demonstrate that BP guidelines are not being well implemented in any part of the world. The level of BP, which is the basis for diagnosis and management, continues to be poorly measured in routine clinical practice and control of hypertension remains suboptimal, even to a conservative BP target such as a systolic/diastolic BP