@article{3194388,
    title = "The corona-virus disease 2019 pandemic compromised routine care for
hypertension: a survey conducted among excellence centers of the
European Society of Hypertension",
    author = "Weber, Thomas and Januszewicz, Andrzej and Rosei, Enrico Agabiti and and Tsioufis, Konstantinos and Okorie, Michael and Stergiou, George S. and and Volpe, Massimo and Kreutz, Reinhold and Abraham, Gyorgy and Azizi, and Michel and Barna, Istvan and Barroso, Weimar Kunz Sebba and Brguljan, and Jana and Chapman, Neil and De Backer, Tine and Dorobantu, Maria and and Eckert, Siegfried and Gaciong, Zbigniew and Giannattasio, Cristina and and Glover, Mark and Gottsaeter, Anders and Grassos, Charalampos and Jarai, and Zoltan and Aguila, Fernando Jaen and Kahan, Thomas and Lopez-Sublet, and Marilucy and Lovic, Dragan and Lurbe, Empar and Makris, Thomas K. and and Mallamaci, Francesca and Manolis, Athanasios J. and Marketou, Maria and and Mazza, Alberto and Mediavilla, Juan Diego and Muiesan, Maria Lorenza and and Muxfeldt, Elizabeth Silaid and Nasr, Edgar and Papadakis, Ioannis and and Parounak, Zelveian and Obregon, Sebastian and Okorie, Michael and and Oliveras, Anna and Pontremoli, Roberto and Raev, Dimitar and Rajkumar, and Chakravarthi and Redon, Josep and Robles, Nicolas Roberto and Rump, Lars and Christian and Sarzani, Riccardo and Sierra, Cristina and Sirenko, Yuriy and and Stojanov, Vesna and Tikkanen, Ilkka and Vaclavik, Jan and Veglio, and Franco and Viigimaa, Margus and Webb, David and Zebekakis, Pantelis and and Zweiker, Robert and European Soc Hypertension Corona-V",
    journal = "JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION",
    year = "2021",
    volume = "39",
    number = "1",
    pages = "190-195",
    publisher = "Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins",
    issn = "-",
    doi = "10.1097/HJH.0000000000002703",
    keywords = "Covid-19; blood pressure; hypertension routine care; renin-angiotensin
system inhibitors",
    abstract = "Background: The Covid-19 pandemic caused a shutdown of healthcare
systems in many countries. We explored the impact on hypertension care
in the Excellence Center (EC) network of the European Society of
Hypertension. Methods: We conducted a 17-question electronic survey
among ECs. Results: Overall, 52 ECs from 20 European and three
non-European countries participated, providing hypertension service for
a median of 1500 hypertensive patients per center per year. Eighty-five
percent of the ECs reported a shutdown lasting for 9 weeks (range 0-16).
The number of patients treated per week decreased by 90%: from a median
of 50 (range 10-400) before the pandemic to a median of 5.0 (range
0-150) during the pandemic (P < 0.0001). 60% of patients (range
0-100%) declared limited access to medical consultations. The majority
of ECs (57%) could not provide 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring, whereas a
median of 63% (range 0-100%) of the patients were regularly performing
home BP monitoring. In the majority (75%) of the ECs, hypertension
service returned to normal after the first wave of the pandemic. In 66%
of the ECs, the physicians received many questions regarding the use of
renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockers. Stopping RAS-blocker therapy
(in a few patients) either by patients or physicians was reported in 27
and 36.5% of the ECs. Conclusion: Patient care in hypertension ECs was
compromised during the Covid-19-related shutdown. These data highlight
the necessity to develop new strategies for hypertension care including
virtual clinics to maintain services during challenging times."
}