The German Hypertension League (Deutsche Hochdruckliga) Quality Seal Protocol for blood pressure-measuring devices: 15-year experience and results from 105 devices for home blood pressure control.

OBJECTIVE: The German Hypertension League (Deutsche Hochdruckliga) established a program to assess the accuracy and reliability of blood pressure (BP)-measuring devices in 1999 (Quality Seal Protocol). Here, we report on the results of a testing series of 105 devices designed for BP self-measurement. METHODS: The test protocol for the validation of upper-arm, wrist, and finger devices was developed to compare device to conventional Riva-Rocci measurements based on five criteria: mean systolic and mean diastolic differences, their standard deviations, and a point score representing the correlation of systolic and diastolic errors of individual comparisons. The results of this testing are summarized. RESULTS: From 1999 to 2014, a total of 105 BP devices for self-measurement were tested according to the Quality Seal Protocol. Of these, 47.6% fulfilled all five validation criteria, 55.7% of the upper-arm devices (39 of 71) and 32.4% (11 of 34) of the wrist devices. Finger devices were not offered for testing. Forty-four devices (41.9%) failed multiple test criteria of the validation procedure. A subanalysis with 51 devices tested showed that a stricter definition of the passing point score with a limit of at least 55% would slightly increase the consistency with the conventional criteria in comparison with a point score criterion of at least 50%. It was therefore introduced in 2007. CONCLUSION: The results indicate the importance of a rigorous testing of a BP-measuring device used for home BP measurement to prevent patients from making erroneous treatment decisions.

Complementary and alternative drug therapy versus science-oriented medicine.

This opinion deals critically with the so-called complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapy on the basis of current data. From the authors' perspective, CAM prescriptions and most notably the extensive current endeavours to the "integration" of CAM into conventional patient care is problematic in several respects. Thus, several CAM measures are used, although no specific effects of medicines can be proved in clinical studies. It is extensively explained that the methods used in this regard are those of evidence-based medicine, which is one of the indispensable pillars of science-oriented medicine. This standard of proof of efficacy is fundamentally independent of the requirement of being able to explain efficacy of a therapy in a manner compatible with the insights of the natural sciences, which is also essential for medical progress. Numerous CAM treatments can however never conceivably satisfy this requirement; rather they are justified with pre-scientific or unscientific paradigms. The high attractiveness of CAM measures evidenced in patients and many doctors is based on a combination of positive expectations and experiences, among other things, which are at times unjustified, at times thoroughly justified, from a science-oriented view, but which are non-specific (context effects). With a view to the latter phenomenon, the authors consider the conscious use of CAM as unrevealed therapeutic placebos to be problematic. In addition, they advocate that academic medicine should again systematically endeavour to pay more attention to medical empathy and use context effects in the service of patients to the utmost. The subsequent opinion discusses the following after an introduction to medical history: the definition of CAM; the efficacy of most common CAM procedures; CAM utilisation and costs in Germany; characteristics of science-oriented medicine; awareness of placebo research; pro and contra arguments about the use of CAM, not least of all in terms of aspects related to medical ethics.

Treatment resistant hypertension--investigation and conservative management.

BACKGROUND: The introduction of invasive treatments, some of which are irreversible, for the entity called treatment-resistant hypertension (TRH) creates the need for a comprehensive discussion of the diagnostic evaluation that TRH requires and the available options for its conservative treatment. METHOD: The pertinent literature is selectively reviewed in the light of the authors' longstanding clinical experience. RESULTS: Our review of the literature suggests that the high prevalence of TRH in Germany (ca. 20%) can be nearly halved with the aid of more thorough diagnostic evaluation. Such an evaluation should include a review of the patient's antihypertensive drugs (adherence, daily dosing, concomitant medication), investigation for other vascular changes that might affect blood pressure measurement, and exclusion of white-coat hypertension, sleep apnea syndrome, and secondary rather than essential hypertension. As there have been no randomized trials of treatment for TRH, the physician confronted with such cases must devise treatments on the basis of observational data and pathophysiological reasoning (volume status considering renin levels, sympathetic blockade, vasodilatation). Such measures can presumably lower the number of truly treatment-resistant cases still further. CONCLUSION: To save patients from preventable harm, patients should undergo a thorough diagnostic evaluation and-under close monitoring for side effects-conservative pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments should be deployed before any invasive treatment is performed.

[Hypertension therapy--never without diuretics?]. / Evidenzbasierte Hochdruckbehandlung. Nie ohne Diuretikum?

Diuretics are highly effective and are valuable antihypertensives in modern high blood pressure therapy. As a monotherapy, diuretics should be preferably be used in elderly patients; in a combination therapy, in any case in a triple combination therapy, they should be used regardless of the patient's age. Disadvantages include risk for developing hypokalaemia, their diabetogenicity with unclear long-term prognosis and the usually limited treatment persistence. Diuretics are no longer the lowest-priced antihypertensives. For monotherapy and dual combination therapy, effective alternatives are available. The necessity for the use of diuretics cannot be rationalized either medically or economically.

Refinement of the critical region for MCKD1 by detection of transcontinental haplotype sharing.

BACKGROUND: Autosomal-dominant medullary cystic kidney disease type 1 (MCKD1) [OMIM 174000] is a hereditary nephropathy that leads to renal salt wasting and end-stage renal failure at a median age of 62 years. In a Welsh MCKD1 kindred we have recently demonstrated linkage to the MCKD1 locus on chromosome 1q23.1 and refined the critical MCKD1 region to <3.3 Mb. METHODS: In order to refine the candidate gene region for MCKD1, high-resolution haplotype analysis in three large kindreds with MCKD1 was performed. RESULTS: We report here on high-resolution haplotype analysis in this Welsh kindred, as well as in the Arizona kindred, which was used for the first definition of MCKD as a disease entity, and in a kindred from the Dutch/German border. We detected extensive haplotype sharing among all affected individuals of all three kindreds. Scrutinization of the genealogy of the Arizona kindred revealed an origin from Germany in the 17th century, thereby providing historical data for haplotype sharing by descent at the MCKD1 locus. CONCLUSION: Under the hypothesis of haplotype sharing by descent, we refined the critical genetic interval to <650 kb, thus enabling candidate gene analysis.