How Can a New Online Tool Change Hypertension Treatment?

New Delhi, Aug 29 (NationPress) A collaborative effort by a global team of researchers from India, Australia, the US, and the UK has led to the creation of an innovative online tool designed to revolutionize the management of hypertension. This tool enables physicians to tailor treatments based on the specific blood pressure reduction needs of each patient.

The 'blood pressure treatment efficacy calculator' utilizes data from nearly 500 randomized clinical trials involving over 100,000 individuals. It provides healthcare professionals with insights into how various medications can effectively lower blood pressure.

“It is crucial to manage high blood pressure both effectively and efficiently. To achieve optimal control, we must understand the efficacy of different antihypertensive medications at varying doses and in diverse combinations. Without a clear pathway to our goals, we risk not meeting our targets. While guidelines set the target blood pressure, our online tool identifies which antihypertensive drugs are best suited to achieve that goal,” explained Dr. Mohammad Abdul Salam from The George Institute for Global Health in Hyderabad.

Typically, a single antihypertensive medication—still the most common initial treatment—lowers systolic blood pressure by only 8-9 mmHg. However, most patients require a reduction of 15-30 mmHg to meet ideal targets.

Cardiologist Nelson Wang, a Research Fellow at the Institute, highlighted that traditional methods involve measuring blood pressure directly for each patient and adjusting treatments accordingly. However, BP readings often exhibit significant variability, making them unreliable.

The newly developed tool, detailed in research published in The Lancet, addresses this challenge by calculating the average treatment effect observed across hundreds of trials.

It also classifies treatments into low, moderate, and high intensity categories based on their effectiveness in lowering blood pressure—an approach that is routinely applied in cholesterol-lowering therapies.

High blood pressure is a pressing global health issue, impacting approximately 1.3 billion individuals and contributing to around ten million fatalities annually.

Often referred to as a silent killer due to its lack of symptoms, hypertension can remain undetected until it precipitates serious conditions like heart attacks, strokes, or kidney disease. Alarmingly, fewer than one in five individuals with hypertension have their condition under control.