Biology and Medicine

Impact of the latest guidelines on the management of hypertension

Annual Congress on Medicine

November 05-06, 2018 Bangkok, Thailand

Bernard M Y Cheung

University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Keynote: Biol Med

Abstract:

The latest American guidelines (ACC/AHA) on the prevention, detection, evaluation and management of high blood pressure marked a paradigm shift in the management of hypertension. The new definition of hypertension includes a systolic blood pressure of 130-139 mmHg or a diastolic blood pressure of 80-89 mmHg. What used to be regarded as prehypertension is now included in the definition of hypertension. This makes a sizeable proportion of the general population hypertensive. In USA, 45.6% of the adult population is deemed to be hypertensive. This is fine in a society in which a disease label entitles people to be reimbursed for medical treatment, but for less developed countries, this poses a challenge. Nevertheless, tackling hypertension at an earlier stage is cheaper than treating the complications of hypertension. Americans with stage-1 hypertension are mostly overweight without cardiovascular complications yet. Stage-1 hypertension can therefore be managed initially by changing lifestyle. For those with a certain level of cardiovascular risk (e.g. 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk of 10% or higher), drug treatment should be considered. Fortunately, stage-1 hypertension is relatively easy to control. Our network meta-analysis of clinical trials suggested that the ACC/AHA target of <130/80 mmHg is associated with reduction in the risk of cardiovascular events.

Biography :

Bernard M Y Cheung went to Sevenoaks School and graduated from the University of Cambridge. He was a British Heart Foundation Junior Research Fellow at Cambridge before taking up Lectureships in Sheffield and Hong Kong. From 2007-2009, he held the chair in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics in Birmingham. He is the Head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the Department of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong. He is an Honorary Consultant Physician of Queen Mary Hospital and the Medical Director of the Phase 1 Clinical Trials Centre. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Postgraduate Medical Journal. His main research interest is in cardiovascular diseases and risk factors, including hypertension and the metabolic syndrome.

E-mail: mycheung@hku.hk