PURPOSE Intravenous antihypertensive agents for the treatment of hypertensive emergencies are reviewed. SUMMARY An estimated 500,000 people in the United States experience a hypertensive crisis annually. Hypertensive emergency is associated with significant morbidity in the form of end-organ damage. Rapid controlled reduction of blood pressure (BP) may be necessary to prevent or minimize end-...

Though antihypertensive drugs have been in use for many decades, the mechanisms by which they act chronically to reduce blood pressure remain unclear. Over long periods, mean arterial blood pressure must match the perfusion pressure necessary for the kidney to achieve its role in eliminating the daily intake of salt and water. It follows that the kidney is the most likely target for the action ...

This article examines the evidence justifying the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors as first-line antihypertensive drugs. ACE inhibitors are as effective as traditional antihypertensive agents and, in addition, exert their blood-pressure-lowering effect with near optimal hemodynamic alterations. These drugs have a good tolerance and safety profile although they induce cough ...

The best antihypertensive regimen for use in patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension has not been determined. When nonpharmacological treatment of hypertension fails, initial drug treatment with diuretic drugs, sympatholytic agents (including beta-adrenergic receptor blockers), or vasodilators will result in satisfactory blood pressure control. However, each of these therapies has effects t...

Two or more antihypertensive agents are increasingly used to control blood pressure (BP) in hypertensive patients. However, it is unclear whether fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) of 2 antihypertensive agents in a single tablet provide greater benefits than the corresponding free-drug components given separately. A meta-analysis was performed to assess compliance, persistence, BP control, and safe...

Effective antihypertonsive drug therapy began with the ganglion-blocking agents, followed by reserpine and hydralarine. later advances included the benzothiadiazine saluretic agents and more recently compounds which specifically inhibit the sympathetic nervous system, such as guanethidine, alpha-methyldopa, and certain amine oxidase inhibitors. Among the antihypertensive drugs, molecular modifi...

D URING THE PAST 15 YEARS, A SUCcession of antihypertensive drugs has been introduced for clinical use. The wide spectrum of available agents has resuited inevitably in changing therapeutic approaches to the management of diastolic hypertension. The adrenergic and ganglion blocking compounds have been largely supplanted by newer agents; and the use of rauwolfia, veratrum, and hydralazine has de...

Hypertension is the commonest cardiovascular disorder encountered by medi­ cal practitioners in primary and secondary health care. Safety in the drug treatment of hypertension can only be seen in relation to efficacy, which has now come to mean not just blood pressure reduction, but improvements in endpoints, including mortality. Diuretics and beta-blockers are two classes of antihypertensive a...

There is a strong rationale for renal denervation (RDN) of the native kidneys in kidney transplant recipients with treatment-resistant hypertension. We present a patient with a stable graft function, who underwent RDN for posttransplant therapy-resistant hypertension (24-h ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM) 143/89 mmHg, while compliantly using five different antihypertensive agents). ...