title: Hypertension: quo vadis?
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Aging and Kidney Diseases, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. claudio.borghi@unibo.it
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Borghi
mesh_terms: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects*; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D011314:Preventive Health Services; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D015431:Weight Loss
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents