Treatment of hypertension: the place of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in the nineties.
The past decade has seen a shift in the strategy for hypertension treatment from stepped therapy--a highly structured monolithic series of steps--to recommendations for a more individualized selection of treatment. Severe hypertension is a clear indicator to bypass traditional steps. Demographic factors, such as age, gender, and race, are often cited, but have proved to be less helpful. Concomitant medical conditions and problems are very common and are more often the crucial determinants in the selection of antihypertensive therapy. Coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, heart failure, azotemia, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary artery disease, anxiety, and depression are all common, and each has implications for the selection of antihypertensive therapy. Blood pressure reduction is a surrogate for reduction of cardiovascular risk, and therefore, consideration of concomitant medical problems has extended to left ventricular hypertrophy, obesity, mild hyperlipidemia, and insulin resistance, as additional risk factors in hypertension. Consideration of all these factors makes it possible to individualize antihypertensive therapy in most patients today.
D000806:Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000818:Animals; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy*
D000806:Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors