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The previous Core Curriculum for the General Cardiologist defined a model for cardiology training in Europe and it has been adopted as the standard for regulating training, for access to the specialty (certification), and for revalidation in several countries.1 During the last 5 years we have witnessed profound changes in cardiological practice. The work of both hospital and independent cardiologists has been better integrated with that of general practitioners. It has taken into account the requirements of national authorities, re-imbursement organizations, and hospital administrations. Cardiologists face changing patient expectations. General cardiologists, interventional …

To estimate changes in life style and drug therapy for treatment of hypertension in France between 2002 and 2004.The French League Against Hypertension Survey 2004 (FLAHS-2004) was performed cross-sectionally on 3 707 subjects, part of a sample of 5476 subjects selected as being representative of the French metropolitan population for age (35 years and above), gender, socioeconomic status, and place of living. Subjects who declare to take an antihypertensive medication were classified as treated hypertensive patients. A questionnaire evaluating changes in life style during the last year (physical activities, quality of food consumption, smoking, and alcohol habits) was auto-administered.In 2004, 24% of the French population above the age of 35 years was treated for hypertension, corresponding to an estimate of 7.5 million of subjects. The two most frequent prescribed drugs are: fixed-dose combination drugs and beta-blockers in patients aged less than 75 years, and calcium antagonist and fixed-dose combination drugs in patients aged more than 75 years. Hypertensive subjects experienced: a weight loss of more than 3 kg in 11% vs 9%* in the general population, an increased in fruits and vegetables consumption in 41% vs 34%*, a decreased in cheese (21 vs 17%*), pork-butchery (46 vs 34%*) and alcohol consumption (23 vs 18%*) [*p0.01]. On the other hand, the percentage of subjects who increased their physical activities was low and not different in the two groups (7 vs 9%).Changes in life style were more often applied by the subjects treated for hypertension that by the general population. The dominating place that occupies today fixed-dose combination drugs indicates a change of the therapeutic practices.

To estimate the number of devices for home blood pressure measurements in the French population in 2004 and to evaluate the use of these apparatus.The French League Against Hypertension Survey 2004 (FLAHS-2004) was performed cross-sectionally on 3707 subjects, part of a sample of 5476 subjects selected as being representative of the French metropolitan population for age (35 years and above), gender, socioeconomic status, and place of living. Subjects who declare to take an antihypertensive medication were classified as treated hypertensive patients. A questionnaire evaluating the condition of use of HBP device was given.In 2004, 24% of the French population above the age of 35 years was treated for hypertension, corresponding to an estimate of 7.5 million of subjects. 25% of treated hypertensives and 12% of untreated subjects had a tensiometer. A total of 4 millions of BP devices are owned in the general population with 43% by treated hypertensive patients. 67% of BP devices are wrist cuff. Medical doctors recommended home blood pressure monitoring in only 12% of subjects.In 2004, the number of subjects treated for hypertension is 1/4 of the general population over the age of 35 years in France. In this group of subjects, 1/4 possessed a tensiometer but in only 10% medical doctor recommended the use of home blood pressure monitoring.

The present study was aimed at reviewing the medical literature devoted to the clinical applications of self-blood pressure monitoring (SBPM) and at providing some recommendations regarding the use of SBPM for diagnostic purposes. The lack of reliability of conventional blood pressure (BP) measurement is largely related to the extreme variability of BP over time. SBPM provides a large number of readings and can be used to predict the results of repeated clinical measurements. The use of SBPM in the diagnosis of white coat hypertension can be proposed as a screening test: if it gives a positive result (a low home BP), it should be confirmed by ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM). SBPM could improve patients' compliance with medication. Last, SBPM may be cost-effective for the management of hypertensive patients, by reducing costs of medication, number of clinic visits and costs of cardiovascular morbidity. Compared with ABPM, SBPM seems to have a less value for the initial diagnosis of hypertension and for predicting prognosis. In contrast, it should be of more value for the long term follow-up of patients with white coat hypertension and for the evaluation of treatment efficacy in patients with sustained hypertension. The use of SBPM in diabetic hypertensives, in pregnant women and in the elderly is encouraged, but needs further evaluation.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antihypertensive effect of drugs according to the initial ambulatory blood pressure (BP) level. After a 15-day placebo run-in period, 105 patients with moderate essential hypertension (mean age, 52 years) underwent 24-h BP monitoring (spacelabs: 1 measure/15 min). Patients were subdivided into two groups: the "High" group, with 24-h mean values of systolic BP (SBP) > 137 or diastolic BP (DBP) > 87 mm Hg, and the "Low" group, with SBP < or = 137 and DBP < or = 87 mm Hg. All patients received, in a random and double-blind design, either bisoprolol (10 mg q.d.) or lisinopril (20 mg q.d.) for 8 weeks. At the end of this active treatment period, office and ambulatory BP measurements were performed. Casual measurements revealed similar BP decreases in all subgroups receiving bisoprolol and lisinopril; BP monitoring showed that the antihypertensive effect depended on the baseline mean 24-h value; -15/-12 mm Hg for bisoprolol and -18/-13 mm Hg for lisinopril in the High group; -7/-6 mm Hg for bisoprolol and -6/-6 mm Hg for lisinopril in the Low group. This study shows that the antihypertensive effect depended on initial ambulatory BP values, with a lower BP decrease in the Low group. Assessment of the antihypertensive effect on ambulatory BP is useful in clinical trials.

This multicenter study was aimed at determining whether the baseline ambulatory blood pressure (BP) level does influence the efficacy of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (CEI) and that of calcium antagonists (CA) to the same degree.The BP recordings of 236 patients with mild to moderate hypertension were reviewed: these subjects previously entered clinical trials comprising a mean 2-week placebo period and a mean 6-week active treatment phase (CEI = 115, CA = 121). The 24-hour baseline ambulatory BP was considered as high when greater than 139/87 mmHg, according to Staessen's meta-analysis.In the patients with an high baseline ambulatory BP, CEI and CA have had roughly a similar effect (reduction in systolic = 9.5 +/- 7.8% vs 7.7 +/- 6.3%, NS; reduction in diastolic = 9.8 +/- 8.6% vs 8.3 +/- 5.8%, NS). Conversely, the patients with a baseline ambulatory BP level lower than or equal to 139/87 mmHg experienced a greater reduction in ambulatory BP with CEI than with CA (systolic = 7.9 +/- 7.0% vs 0.6 +/- 6.7%, p = 0.0001; diastolic: 5.0 +/- 7.4% vs 1.9 +/- 7.6%, p = 0.040). Finally, further analysis found the threshold of drug efficacy to be 120/80 and 135/85 mmHg in CEI and CA patients respectively.1) CEI are more effective than CA in patients with a low ambulatory BP only. 2) The risk of a visceral hypoperfusion seems however to be limited, since CEI do not reduce diastolic ambulatory BP further, when its baseline level is lower than 80 mmHg.

The aim of this study was to assess both the clinical usefulness and the economical efficiency of an in-hospital workup for patients with uncontrolled arterial hypertension.Eligible patients were hospitalized in a specialized unit between 1st January 1998 and 30th June 2000 for management of an uncontrolled arterial hypertension, to general practitioners (GPs) request. A questionnaire was sent to each of these GPs in May 2001.The cohort consisted of 214 patients (107 male, 107 female, mean age: 58 +/- 16 years). Pre-hospitalisation therapy was precisely identified in 178 patients. Forty-nine patients (28%) were given more than 3 antihypertensive drugs. The most frequently administered drugs were the following: diuretics (n = 93), beta-blockers (n = 85), and ACE-inhibitors (n = 78). Mean therapy cost was 1.71 +/- 1.05 [symbol: see text]. An etiology was found in 30 patients (14%). Plasma renin was measured in 140 out of the 184 patients with essential hypertension: it was found as low (or = 7 ng/L) in 96 patients, with 50 of them (36%) having a very low plasma renin (or = 3 ng/L). One hundred and fifty-four questionnaires were fulfilled by the GPs. Median follow-up was 23 months. Seventeen patients were lost of follow-up. Nine cardiovascular events were listed. Mean clinic BP was160/95 mmHg in 86 out of the 108 patients with both an essential hypertension and a fulfilled questionnaire, including 38 patients (35%) with a clinic BP140/90 mmHg. Eleven patients only, were given more than 3 antihypertensive drugs. The most frequently administered drugs were: calcium antagonists (73%), followed by diuretics (50%) and beta-blockers (34%). Mean therapy cost was 1.39 +/- 0.76 [symbol: see text] (p0.002 vs pre-hospitalization therapy cost); 84% of the GPs answered that the in-hospital workup resulted in an useful help in managing their patients.The in-hospital workup of patients with uncontrolled hypertension turned out to be both clinically useful and economically efficient: an aetiology has been found in 14% of the cases; an appropriate therapy, based on the hormonal profile, allowed for a lowering of BP below 160/95 in 80% of the cases, and below 140/90 in one thirds of the patients; the mean therapy cost has been reduced by 19%.

Heart failure is a major health problem which often concerns the elderly. Prevalence of heart failure with preserved systolic function is increasing and varies from 40 to 50%. In the literature, and in the large epidemiological studies, it is commonly designed with the term of "diastolic heart failure", even if a precise analysis of diastolic function is not performed. A diagnostic algorithm is proposed in order to better define the concept of heart failure with preserved systolic function. It consists of seven steps from symptoms and clinical signs to the echocardiographic analysis of diastolic function, in order to confirm the definition of heart failure with preserved systolic function.

Hypertension is a cardiovascular risk factor. In addition to simple normalisation of the blood pressure, the true objective of treatment of hypertension should, therefore, be reduction of the excess risk and it is in terms of morbi-mortality that the real benefits of antihypertensive therapy should be evaluated. However, trials of morbi-mortality are long and costly so that intermediate criteria are proposed for assessing therapeutic benefits with measurement of left ventricular mass as one of the best candidates. The concept is interesting but it is essential to question its clinical pertinence. In order that an intermediary criterion be acknowledged as a substitution criterion, it has to fulfil the following conditions: it must be simple, reliable and reproducible to measure it must be modifiable by therapeutic intervention it must be closely related to the degree of risk, whichever way it changes the amplitude of its changes must provide a quantitative prediction of risk-associated changes finally, in the particular case of hypertension, the benefit of the improvement of the substitute criterion should be distinguished from the benefits due to lowering the blood pressure alone. Left ventricular mass measured by echocardiography is the most documented intermediate substitution criterion over the last 20 years. It fulfils most of the conditions of a substitute criterion. However, the relationship between its reduction with treatment and the reduction of risk, independently of the change in blood pressure, remains to be shown.

Primary aldosteronism (PA) has been regarded for a long time as being a rare cause of arterial hypertension, but its prevalence has recently been reassessed as about 10%. This etiology should obviously be sought in the following settings: hypertension associated with hypokaliemia3.6 mmol/L (or3.9 mmol/L on ACE inhibitors): refractory hypertension: severe hypertension occurring before 40 years of age, especially in women. It must be reminded that more than 20% of PA are normokaliemic. Most of the authors recommend to use the aldosterone/renin ratio (ARR) as a screening test within these selected patients. When ARR turns out to be equal to or higher than 23 (if aldosterone and renin are given in pg/mL or ng/L), a suppression testing should be performed, using salt loading and/or fludrocortisone. Computed tomography scanning yields a specificity of 58% and a positive predictive value of 72%, only. Adenoma and hyperplasia have to be distinguished, using either NP-59 scintigraphy or adrenal venous samplings. Such a strategy appears to be useful, for the following reasons: removal of an adenoma results in a significant blood pressure lowering and in a blood pressure normalization in 95% and in 32% of the patients, respectively; in patients with hyperplasia, spironolactone therapy is followed by a 20% mean reduction in blood pressure.

The study used a cross-sectional survey of the general population living in metropolitan France in April 2002. A national sample of 5,000 adults, representative of the French population, 15 years of age or older, received at their home a questionnaire mailed by SOFRES medical. The sample was designed to provide estimates of the prevalence of hypertension in the general population and in persons older than 60 years of age, a subgroup on which prevalence of treated cardiovascular risk factors is unknown in France. The questionnaire included questions related to diagnosis of hypertension, awareness of their usual BP, current SBP/DBP values, prescribed medicine for hypertension dyslipidemia and diabetes. In FLAHS 2002, a number of 3,499 (70%) questionnaires were suitable for analysis. Estimates of prevalence were standardized by the direct method to the age distribution of the French population given by the 1999 national French census (INSEE 2000). Analysis on 2,363 subjects older than 35 years and indicates that 35% are currently treated for one or more risk factor. Overall, 8,036,000 received antihypertensive medication, 1,877,000 were treated for diabetes and 6,074,000 for dyslipidemia. Prevalence of treated hypertension increased with age from from 4.2% (35-44 years) to 51.8% (75 years) and 70% of treated hypertensives were older than 60 years. Subjects treated for two risk factors were 3,201,000 and those treated for three risk factors were 640,000. The FLAHS 2002 represents the best available data to estimate the prevalence of treated patients for a cardiovascular risk factor in the general French population. Thirty-five percent of the population 35 years of age or older representing around 11 millions persons were taking medications for the treatment of hypertension, diabetes or dyslipidemia in France.