Key result
Targeting underlying causes of elevated BP may reduce the need for lifelong antihypertensive medications.
Why the study?
The authors propose viewing elevated blood pressure as always having an underlying cause to target, prompting a new classification and approach to hypertensive patients.
This review challenges the traditional concept of essential hypertension, proposing that all elevated blood pressure has an underlying cause that should be identified and targeted for optimal management.
Should not change hypertension management; leaves open whether all elevated BP has identifiable, targetable causes.
Elevated blood pressure and consequently systemic hypertension (HTN) are common. HTN was divided into either essential, which counts for more than 90% of cases (where the patient needs a medication for life), and secondary (less than 10% of cases). In clinical practice, when we Look at blood pressure as a vital sign, the elevation of blood pressure is always secondary, where there is always a cause behind its elevation. During our clinical practice and observation, this complex vital sign should be approached in a totally different manner, where solving the cause or at least targeting it, can achieve early diagnosis, better survival and reduction in the number of anti-hypertensive medication if not stopping all of them. In this article we proposed a new classification and approach for hypertensive patients and reviewed the different etiologies behind the elevation in blood pressure.
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Ali H. EL Masri (2023) conducted a review in Hypertension. Etiological approach to hypertension was evaluated. The review proposes that elevated blood pressure is always secondary to an underlying etiology, and targeting these specific causes can reduce the need for lifelong antihypertensive medications.
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