The 2013 guidelines on hypertension of the European Society of
Hypertension (ESH) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)
follow the guidelines jointly issued by the two societies in 2003 and
2007.1,2 Publication of a new document 6 years after the previous
one was felt to be timely because, over this period, important
studies have been conducted and many new results have been published
on both the diagnosis and treatment of individuals with an elevated
blood pressure (BP), making refinements, modifications and
expansion of the previous recommendations necessary.