Dear Colleagues,
Greetings from New Orleans. I have had a busy but very pleasant summer of travel to Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and South Africa. Thanks to many colleagues who made the “journey” so delightful. As you may already know, we had to change the dates of our World Hypertension Congress to March 7-9, 2025. Nothing has changed except the dates. I am delighted that Dr. Thomas Frieden, President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL) and former Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will deliver an address during the opening ceremony.
RTSL is committed to saving 100 million lives through improved hypertension control, reductions in sodium consumption, and elimination of trans fats. RTSL is an exceptionally important partner for the WHL and holds an ex-officio seat on our Board of Directors. We are grateful to all our colleagues in RTSL for their vital health role in middle- and low-income countries, especially Drs. Frieden, Renu Garg and Andrew Moran. I am also delighted that Dr. Katherine Mills, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA, will present updated global estimates for hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment and control and give us a “report card” based on temporal trends between 2000 and 2020 on Day 2 of the WHC in Chennai. This will be the first presentation of this study at an international meeting and promises to be very informative. For those of you who are WHL Council members, we will have an in-person meeting from 3:30 until 5:00 PM on March 6, the day before the Congress starts. I am delighted to know that Dr. Terry McCormick, immediate Past President of the British and Irish Society of Hypertension (BISH) will be in Chennai to represent the BISH. I hope many other Council members will be able to join us. Elsewhere in the Newsletter you will find additional details for registration, abstract submissions, and hotel reservations.
The World Stroke Organization (WSO) is another important WHL partner, with whom we are developing a policy statement on the management of hypertension for prevention and treatment of stroke. The WSO will be holding its Congress next month in Abu Dahbi (October 23-26). Drs. Lackland and I will be there to represent the WHL, and we hope to see you during the Congress.
The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) meetings were held in London last month and the WHL was well represented by our President-Elect, Dr. Gianfranco Parati, and our Treasurer, Dr. Markus Schlaich. Dr. Parati represented the WHL in a WHL joint conference on “Global approach to hypertension management and cardiovascular risk reduction”. In addition, the ESC released its 2024 ESC Guidelines for the management of elevated blood pressure and hypertensionnew hypertension guidelines. Chaired by Drs. McEvoy and Touyz, the report is a careful and detailed report that will be a great reference document for those who use it. The management recommendation to add antihypertensive medication to lifestyle improvement for adults at high risk for CVD who have an SBP ≥130 mm Hg or DBP ≥80 mm Hg is similar to recommendations in the WHO and ACC/AHA guidelines. One of our sessions at the WHC in Chennai will focus on guidelines and Dr. McEvoy will provide additional details of the ESC guidelines. An updated ACC/AHA BP Guideline is well underway and is expected to be released in 2025. At the just completed American Heart Association Hypertension Council Meeting in Chicago, I participated in a guideline session and the WHL was also represented by Dr. Schlaich and WHL Board of Directors member Dr. Michael Weber. The ESC and AHA meetings also featured many other interesting presentations. In particular, three trials using a new single pill low-dose triple-therapy combination of telmisartan, amlodipine, and indapamide for initial treatment of hypertension were reported, with corresponding publications in the Lancet, JAMA and JACC. The Veronica trial conducted in Nigeria reported a significant reduction in home SBP (primary outcome) of almost 6 mmHg compared with usual care, and no increase in discontinuation of trial treatment due to adverse events. One of the goals for this new triple therapy combination is to make it available at low cost in middle- and low-income countries. The potential for this novel approach to therapy in low- and middle-income countries will be highlighted by Dr. Anthony Rodgers during his Keynote Address on Day 2 of the WHC in Chennai.
We have a lot to look forward to at the Congress in Chennai.
Paul WHL President
