title: Managing hypertension: state of the science.
abstract: Hypertension management is both routine and a challenge. Updated guidelines emphasize the need to achieve increasingly stringent blood pressure goals to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality; however, the blood pressure of many patients who have been diagnosed with hypertension is not well controlled. Treating prehypertension nonpharmacologically may preempt the progression to hypertension, whereas early and aggressive management of hypertension with antihypertensive agents reduces short- and long-term cardiovascular risk. Treatment decisions should follow current guidelines while evaluating recently published clinical studies. When choosing between agents from different therapeutic classes or combining agents, physicians should consider current and targeted blood pressure levels, the patient's demographic profile, the presence or absence of compelling cardiovascular and metabolic indications, other comorbidities, and concurrent medication(s).
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63104, USA. cohenjd@slu.edu
authors.forename: Jerome D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D000960:Hypolipidemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009939:Organizations, Nonprofit; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents; D000960:Hypolipidemic Agents