DUNDEE, Scotland, May 19 (UPI) -- A stepped-up approach to treat hypertension that allows physicians to keep tighter tabs on their patients is effective but rarely implemented by U.S. doctors.
Tom Fahey, who completed a review of 56 studies that appears in the Cochrane Library, is a family physician with the Tayside Centre for General Practice in Dundee, Scotland, and a hypertension researcher.
Fahey said stepped-up care means a physician has mapped out a clear plan to adjust hypertension treatment -- and blood-pressure-lowering medication -- when a patient's health goals are not met.
The review found that if improving high blood pressure is attended to, then the prevention of strokes and heart attacks does occur, according to Fahey.
In the United Kingdom, stepped-up care typically means patients taking anti-hypertension medication are enrolled in a registry of people who will receive intensified monitoring and follow-up.
However, Dr. George L. Bakris, a hypertension researcher in Chicago, said systematic hypertension care is uncommon in the United States.
