2007 Guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension

For several years the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) decided not to produce their own guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension but to endorse the guidelines on hypertension issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Society of Hypertension (ISH) with some adaptation to reflect the situation in Europe. However, in 2003 the decision was taken to publish ESH/ ESC specific guidelines based on the fact that, because the WHO/ISH Guidelines address countries widely varying in the extent of their health care and availability of economic resource, they contain diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations that may be not totally appropriate for European countries. In Europe care provisions may often allow a more in-depth diagnostic assessment of cardiovascular risk and organ damage of hypertensive individuals as well as a wider choice of antihypertensive treatment. In 2007 the ESC/ESH decide to release new guidelines in consideration of considerable additional evidence on important issues related to diagnostic and treatment approaches to hypertension has become available.