The Women’s Health Initiative Calcium/Vitamin D Trial To the Editor: We appreciate the excellent review of research pertaining to vitamin D and hypertension by Vaidya and Forman in the recent issue of Hypertension.1 We agree with nearly all of their comments regarding the limitations of the Women’s Health Initiative Calcium/Vitamin D Trial regarding the effect of vitamin D supplementation on bl...

Pharmacogenetic investigation seeks to identify genetic factors that contribute to interpatient and interdrug variation in responses to antihypertensive drug therapy. Classical studies have characterized single gene polymorphisms of drug metabolizing enzymes that are responsible for large interindividual differences in pharmacokinetic responses to several antihypertensive drugs. Progress is bei...

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. The importance of lowering blood pressure for reducing the risk of stroke is well established. However, not all the benefits of antihypertensive treatments in stroke can be accounted for by reductions in BP and there may be differences between antihypertensive classes as to which provides optimal protection. Dihydropyridine calcium ch...

Hypertensive disorders occur in approximately 6% to 8% of all pregnancies and are a significant source of maternal and fetal morbidity. Little is known about the range of agents routinely used in practice. We used Medicaid claims from 2000 to 2007 to identify completed pregnancies. We included women who were Medicaid beneficiaries from at least 3 months prior to last menstrual period to 1 month...

Objectives. To assess the current clinical evidence of Banxia Baizhu Tianma Decoction (BBTD) for essential hypertension (EH). Search Strategy. Electronic databases were searched until July 2012. Inclusion Criteria. We included randomized clinical trials testing BBTD against placebo, antihypertensive drugs, or combined with antihypertensive drugs against antihypertensive drugs. Data Extraction a...

BACKGROUND Clinicians are encouraged to take an individualized approach when treating hypertension in patients of African ancestry, but little is known about why the individual patient may respond well to calcium blockers and diuretics, but generally has an attenuated response to drugs inhibiting the renin-angiotensin system and to β-adrenergic blockers. Therefore, we systematically reviewed th...

BACKGROUND The use of thiazide diuretics in the treatment of hypertension is widely considered as a first-line treatment, given the efficacy and low cost of this class of drugs. This indication is not unanimous, because thiazides can cause metabolic alterations, and other side effects that reduce compliance and persistence on treatment. OBJECTIVES In a multicentre, open-label randomized study...

Treatment failure may be caused by induction of compensatory mechanisms that compromise effectiveness of the antihypertensive regimen. Antihypertensive agents have been classified according to mechanism of action, and compensatory mechanisms usually evoked by each class of drugs have been reviewed. Host factors may be responsible for the inability to control blood pressure or may predict specia...