Maximizing the benefit of treatment in mild hypertension:three simple steps to improve diagnostic accuracy.
BACKGROUND
Most patients only have three measurements of blood pressure before being labelled as hypertensive. This may lead to inaccurate classification, unnecessary treatment and dilution in treatment benefit for the population.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the accuracy of current methods of diagnosing mild hypertension, and to explore ways to improving targeting of antihypertensive treatment without entailing lengthy observation.


METHODS
Re-analysis of published data.


METHODS
We tested current diagnostic methods using the data for 3965 individuals who were followed for a year in the placebo arm of the MRC Mild Hypertension Trial. We calculated the proportion selected for treatment by current methods and the diagnostic accuracy, using average blood pressure beyond 6 months as representing 'true' long-term blood pressure. We examined the benefit of averaging blood pressures, of prolonging observation modestly and of estimating within-person blood pressure variability.


RESULTS
Prolonging observation to 3 months selects a smaller (by about 12%) proportion of the sample for treatment, a proportion similar to that defined as 'truly' hypertensive. The diagnostic accuracy of current methods is poor, with up to 69% discrepancy in classification. This discrepancy was improved by up to 18% in absolute terms by prolonging observation to 3 months and using average blood pressures. Identifying those individuals with low within-person variability allows marked improvement in the prediction of 'true' hypertension.


CONCLUSIONS
Although some inaccuracy in the diagnosis of hypertension is inevitable, observation for 3 months, averaging blood pressures and estimating within-person blood pressure variability can markedly improve upon current practice.
Benediktsson
R
R
Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland. rafn@efnaskipti.com
Padfield
P L
PL
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D018579:Patient Selection; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents