A MSFD complementary approach for the assessment of pressures, knowledge and data gaps in Southern European Seas: The PERSEUS experience.

PERSEUS project aims to identify the most relevant pressures exerted on the ecosystems of the Southern European Seas (SES), highlighting knowledge and data gaps that endanger the achievement of SES Good Environmental Status (GES) as mandated by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). A complementary approach has been adopted, by a meta-analysis of existing literature on pressure/impact/knowledge gaps summarized in tables related to the MSFD descriptors, discriminating open waters from coastal areas. A comparative assessment of the Initial Assessments (IAs) for five SES countries has been also independently performed. The comparison between meta-analysis results and IAs shows similarities for coastal areas only. Major knowledge gaps have been detected for the biodiversity, marine food web, marine litter and underwater noise descriptors. The meta-analysis also allowed the identification of additional research themes targeting research topics that are requested to the achievement of GES.

Aggressive blood pressure control in general practice (ABC-GP) study: can the new targets be reached?

Based on outcome trials, guidelines for hypertension management recommend lower blood pressure (BP) goals using an individualized treatment strategy (IND) and referral to a specialist of patients uncontrolled after 6 months of treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of General Practitioners (GPs) in reaching the recommended BP goals using the IND, or a stepwise treatment strategy (STEP) as used in the outcome trials. Trained GPs were randomized to reach the BP goals within 6 months using the IND or a STEP strategy in untreated or treated uncontrolled hypertensives. In all, 24 GPs recruited 528 patients of whom 443 were analysed (mean age 65+/-9 years, 42% men, 70% treated, STEP/IND 12/12 GPs, 231/211 patients). After 6 months, 83% of the patients had reached the diastolic BP goal, whereas only 51% the systolic (P<0.0001 for difference). Factors associated with uncontrolled systolic BP were diabetes, age >60 years and triple antihypertensive therapy at baseline. A faster BP reduction was achieved during the first 3 months using the STEP strategy, but at the cost of using more drugs (combination therapy in 68/59% for STEP/IND, P=0.06). At 6 months similar rates of control were achieved with the two strategies. In conclusion, in primary care the diastolic BP goal can be reached within 6 months in the majority of patients, whereas systolic BP remains uncontrolled in 50% of the cases. The IND should be the recommended treatment strategy, but further investigation is required on the reasons for treatment failure and the optimal strategy for its improvement.