Interactions between hypercholesterolemia and hypertension: implications for therapy.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the present review is to summarize the available information that supports the therapeutic role for the concomitant and aggressive management of hypercholesterolemia and hypertension.


RESULTS
A concomitant management of hypertension and high-plasma cholesterol has been suggested to significantly reduce the extent of cardiovascular complications. Hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) have been demonstrated to be very effective in the treatment of patients with hypercholesterolemia where they reduce the rate of coronary and cerebrovascular complications. This benefit is largely extended to the hypertensive population. Very recently some studies have demonstrated the capacity of statins to improve blood pressure control in patients with hypertension and this effect, which has not been demonstrated for the other lipid-lowering drugs, could be very important in the clinical management of overall cardiovascular risk.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings confirm that the prevention of cardiovascular diseases should be based on the aggressive treatment of many different risk factors. This is particularly true for patients with hypertension and hypercholesterolemia for whom the negative interaction between risk factors could be effectively managed by an appropriate choice of both antihypertensive and lipid-lowering drugs.
Department of Medicine, University of Bologna, Italy. claudio@med.unibo.it
Claudio
C
Borghi
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000960:Hypolipidemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors; D000960:Hypolipidemic Agents