Progress on new hypertension and lipid guidelines

Lipid and hypertension related health issues affect millions of Australians — around 4.5 million Australian adults have high blood pressure and 8.5 million have abnormal blood lipid levels. Each is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke.

In a bid to improve outcomes, the Heart Foundation and the Stroke Foundation have joined forces to progress the development of two bespoke sets of guidelines: one for managing and treating hypertension (high blood pressure) and another for managing and treating lipids (such as cholesterol).

The development will be progressed by both foundations in collaboration with Hypertension Australia, clinical and disease prevention communities, and those working primary health care, with whom collaboration is essential for achieving a new standard of best practice.

The foundations will conduct a systematic review of existing literature later this year, with key stakeholders invited to participate. It is anticipated that the two new guidelines will be finalised and ready for implementation early next year (2025).

The work will support the Roadmap of the Hypertension Taskforce.

Heart Foundation CEO David Lloyd said, “There have been significant advances in medications and treatments for these conditions in recent years. These advancements make the current guidelines outdated.

“The Heart and Stroke Foundations are very much looking forward to working with key stakeholders from the clinical and disease prevention communities to design new guidelines that ensure patients receive the most up-to-date and evidence-backed advice for their health care.”

While the lipid guideline is completely new, the hypertension guideline is an update of the 2017 Heart Foundation/High Blood Pressure Council of Australia Guideline and should be smaller in scale.

There have been significant advances in medications and treatments for lipids and hypertension in recent years, making new guidelines and an update necessary, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundations.

Lipids and hypertension have been covered in part in the 2023 Heart Foundation/Australian Chronic Disease Association Risk Prediction Guideline and the forthcoming Heart Foundation/Cardiac Society of Australian and New Zealand Acute Coronary Syndromes Guideline. However, this will be a more comprehensive review. Implemented together, these four guidelines will complement each other and help reduce the chronic disease burden in the Australian community.

Stroke and heart attacks are largely preventable through best-practice management of risk factors such as cholesterol and hypertension, reminded Stroke Foundation CEO Lisa Murphy.

“The Australian clinical and disease prevention sectors have an exciting opportunity to help us progress the review and redesign of a global gold standard in clinical guidelines for helping people improve the management of their cholesterol and blood pressure,” Murphy said.

“Health professionals, particularly in primary care, are seeking guidance on new therapies that have become available since the previous guidelines were released, recent evidence on thresholds and targets for treatment, and new diagnostic technologies,” the foundations said in a statement.

New guidelines are essential for ensuring that patients receive the most current and evidence-based treatments, the statement said.

The Australian Atherosclerosis Society is also supporting the initiatives of the Heart and Stroke Foundations to update current guidelines.

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