Office and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure control by treatment in general practice: the 'Monitoraggio della pressione ARteriosa nella medicina TErritoriale' study.

BACKGROUND: Guidelines recommend that blood pressure (BP) should be lowered in hypertensive patients to prevent cardiovascular accidents. Management of antihypertensive treatment by general practitioners is usually based on office measurements, which may not allow an assessment of BP control over 24 h, which requires ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) to be implemented. This is rarely done in general practice, and limited information is available on the consistency between the evaluations of the response to treatment provided by office measurement and by ABPM in this setting. AIM: To assess concordance between office BP measurements and ABPM-based estimates of hypertension control in a general practice setting. DESIGN OF STUDY: Prospective, comparative between techniques. SETTING: General practice. METHODS: Seventy-eight general practices, representative of all Italian regions, participated in this study by recruiting sequential hypertensive adults on stabilized treatment, who were subdivided into even groups with office BP, respectively, controlled or noncontrolled by treatment. In each individual, ABPM was applied by the general practitioner after appropriate training, and 24-h ABP values were defined as controlled or not according to current guidelines. Concordance between office and ABPM evaluation of BP control was assessed with kappa statistics. Positive and negative predictive values of office measurement versus ABPM were estimated. RESULTS: Between July 2005 and November 2006, 190 general practitioners recruited 2059 hypertensive patients based on office BP measurements; in 1728 patients, a 24-h ABPM was performed, yielding 1524 recordings considered as valid for further analysis. The agreement between the assessment of BP control by office measurement and by ABPM was poor (kappa = 0.120), with office measurements showing a satisfactory positive predictive value (0.842) and a poor negative predictive value (0.278); the situation was worse in patients with three or more among the following features: male sex, age of at least 65 years, alcohol consumption, diabetes, and obesity (negative predictive value = 0.149). CONCLUSION: In general practice, the agreement between assessment of BP control by treatment provided by office and ambulatory BP measurements is better in patients of 'uncontrolled' office BP than in 'controlled' office BP patients. This emphasizes the need for the larger use of out-of-office BP monitoring in a general practice setting, in particular, in patients considered as 'controlled' during consultation.

Management of erectile dysfunction in general practice.

INTRODUCTION: In recent years, the availability of effective oral pharmacological treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED) has revolutionized its management; however, it is still unclear how everyday clinical practice has changed in response to this evolving scenario. AIM: The aim of this study is to describe general practitioners' (GPs) beliefs and attitudes toward the management of ED. METHODS: Each GP was asked to recruit consecutive men aged >or=18 years and sexually active, with already known erectile problems or with newly diagnosed ED. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: A written questionnaire was used to investigate GPs' sociodemographic characteristics and their beliefs toward the management of ED. RESULTS: Overall, 127 GPs (53.4%) returned the questionnaire and 124 enrolled patients for the study. Only 9.5% of the GPs reported routinely inquiring about ED of patients >40 years of age, whereas 45.7% did it only when the patient raised the problem. GPs' gender and age were associated with their beliefs about ED treatment and referral to specialist care. Overall, 932 patients were enrolled, of whom 38% had newly diagnosed ED. The problem came to light for initiative of patient in 80% of cases, and 84.8% of men were prescribed a treatment. Patients who on their own initiative discussed of their condition had an almost 3-fold increased probability to be treated than those whose GP began the discussion about ED (odds ratio [OR] = 2.6, confidence interval [CI] 95% 1.5-4.5). Patients followed by female physicians were significantly more likely to be referred to a specialist than those followed by male physicians (OR = 3.3, CI 95% 1.4-5.0). CONCLUSIONS: The management of ED has become an integral component of clinical practice in primary care. Nevertheless, barriers in addressing sexual issues still persist. Appropriate training is needed for a proactive approach to ED screening and management in men over 40s.