Severe Hypertension and Same-day Specialist Review

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Study of Patients with Severe Hypertension referred to hospital for same day specialist review

  • IRAS ID

    261458

  • Contact name

    Mark Glover

  • Contact email

    Mark.Glover@nottingham.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Nottingham

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    10 years, 0 months, 0 days

  • Research summary


    Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a common condition in the developed world and is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease which in turn is a leading cause of death. Hypertension, even when severe, is usually asymptomatic and is often diagnosed incidentally. However, some indiviudals with severe hypertension develop rapidly worsening organ damage requiring urgent treatment. Current NICE guidance advises individuals with severe hypertension and emergency features should be referred for same day specialist review however the NICE hypertension committee also highlighted a lack of evidence regarding who is most likely to benefit from same day specialist review. As a result, same day specialist assessment in severe hypertension has been recommended as a key area for research.

    We intend to recruit adults with severely raised blood pressure referred to secondary care for same day specialist review. Individuals who are already on renal replacement therapy or those admitted with an acute stroke will be excluded. We will characterise these individuals in terms of their medical background, current treatment, blood and urine changes and 12 month outcome. We will also recruit adults with a similar degree of severely raised blood pressure who have not been referred for same day assessment from outpatient clinics as a control group for comparison.

    The timeframe of the study would be an initial visit at the time of recruitment in hospital whereby the individual would be consented, data collected from clinical notes and blood and urine samples taken. We would then arrange a 3 month follow up visit to record any changes to the medical history and repeat blood/urine tests. At 1 year, 2 years, 5 years and 10 years we will perform a follow-up which will usually be through review of electronic health records rather than a face-to-face visit. The last follow-up will be 10 years post-recruitment.

  • REC name

    East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    20/EM/0085

  • Date of REC Opinion

    4 Jul 2020

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion