People with newly diagnosed high blood pressure should be checked for potential organ damage, according to British guidelines published today.
The guidance confirms proposals that high blood pressure should be confirmed by using ambulatory monitoring – a procedure believed to help eliminate the problem of "white coat hypertension".
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has issued the guidance as a quality standard.
It says checks for organ damage should be undertaken within a month of diagnosis.
And patients should be offered statin therapy if they also have a risk of developing heart disease within ten years of at least 20%.
Currently about 12 million people in the UK are diagnosed with high blood pressure and half of them are over the age of 60.
Dr Gillian Leng, of NICE, said: “The NICE clinical guideline on hypertension published in 2011 made a number of important recommendations that are changing the way blood pressure is diagnosed for the first time in more than a century, affecting the treatment of millions of people.
"This new quality standard provides measurable markers that will drive further improvements in the management of hypertension, ensuring that it is diagnosed accurately, that treatments are provided and their adherence and efficacy monitored appropriately, and referral to specialists made when necessary."
Professor Gareth Beevers, of Birmingham City Hospital and Blood Pressure UK, welcomed the guidelines.
He said: "This is also the ideal time to encourage lifestyle corrections such as; avoiding or reducing obesity, reducing salt intake, gradually increase exercise and limiting alcohol consumption."
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