Category: Cardiology
Keywords: Hypertension (PubMed Search)
Posted: 9/1/2013 by Ali Farzad, MD
(Updated: 3/10/2014)
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Adult ED patients are commonly found to have markedly elevated blood pressures (>160/100) without any signs or symptoms of acute organ injury (ie, cardiovascular, renal, or neurological).
A recently revised ACEP clinical policy aims to guide emergency physicians in the evaluation and management of such patients.
They make the following recommendations (Level C):
Bottom-line:
There's little evidence to guide the decision of which patients with markedly elevated blood pressures to test or treat in the ED. This new clinical policy suggests that routine screening and treatment is not required. Asymptomatic patients should be referred for close follow-up, but consider a BMP in patients with poor follow up.
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Wolf SJ, Lo B, Shih RD, et al. Clinical Policy: Critical Issues in the Evaluation and Management of Adult Patients in the Emergency Department with Asymptomatic Elevated Blood Pressure. Ann Emerg Med. 2013;62(1):59–68.