The goals of antihypertensive therapy, to lower the blood pressure to a safe level, reduce LV hypertrophy, and improve other cardiovascular risk factors without adversely affecting other organ systems or risk factors, become more difficult to attain in the presence of concomitant disease of the heart, lungs, or kidneys. In tailoring antihypertensive therapy to the [...]
The treatment of hypertension has evolved over the past four decades as knowledge of the natural history, pathophysiology, and risk factors for hypertension as well as the effects of therapy and the interactions of these factors has accumulated. The goal of treating high blood pressure is to reduce blood pressure and thereby prevent or reverse [...]
There are 12 major classes of drugs that are used as oral antihypertensive drugs, and these include drugs that act centrally and those that work in the periphery. Antihypertensive drugs may cause vascular smooth-muscle relaxation, vascular volume reduction, or a decrease in cardiac output. This is accomplished by decreasing Ca2+ in vascular smooth muscle cells [...]
