European guidelines for hypertension in 2024: a comparison of key recommendations for clinical practice
Hypertension is the most prevalent modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease and for cardiovascular and allcause mortality globally. Suboptimal control of elevated blood pressure places a substantial burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Several factors contribute to this suboptimal control, such as limited awareness of hypertension, lack of appropriate diagnosis and poor control of blood pressure among those with a diagnosis. These factors can be due to patient nonadherence to treatment, inertia among healthcare professionals and low uptake and implementation of clinical guideline recommendations. From 2003 to 2018, the European Society of Hypertension and the European Society of Cardiology jointly published four sets of guidelines on hyper tension. However, the two societies released separate guidelines on hypertension in 2023 and 2024, respectively. These two sets of European guidelines agree on most recommendations, but some differences have been identified. In this Expert Recommendation, we highlight the key consensus recommendations from the two guidelines; compare differing approaches to the definition, classification, diagnosis and treatment of hypertension; and aim to help healthcare professionals in their decisionmaking to improve the management of hypertension and to reduce the burden of
hypertensionassociated outcomes and premature deaths.
Read full article (July 2025 Nature Reviews Cardiology) here!