title: [Essential arterial hypertension: a strategy for the use of antihypertensive drugs].
abstract: Mild to moderate essential arterial hypertension affects almost 15 p. 100 of middle-aged adults in the general population. Although its individual vascular complications are few, it constitutes a problem of public health since a large number of patients implies a large number of complications in the population. Hypotensive therapy has proved capable of preventing mechanical complications of vascular rupture, but epidemiological studies have not yet demonstrated that it reduces the frequency of atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries and, probably, of other arteries at risk. A more detailed physiopathological approach to the vascular system in hypertensive patients therefore is necessary, notably to investigate the interactions between arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis and antihypertensive drugs. Meanwhile, the therapeutic strategy remains empirical, its principal goal being the degree of fall in blood pressure. The large number of drugs currently prescribed as first-choice treatment (diuretics, beta-blockers, calcium antagonists, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors) has complicated the conventional treatment by successive prescription of drugs with additive effects and has paved the way for a new therapeutic approach involving substitution and trying to find, for each individual patient, one or two effective drugs.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents
vernacular_title: Hypertension artérielle essentielle: stratégie d'emploi des médicaments antihypertenseurs.