Mild Hypertension [antikvár]

Preface Despite tremendous advances in the treatment of arterial hypertension, the management of mild elevations of blood pressure still raises a number of questions: At which levels of blood pressure is drug treatment warranted? Do side effects outweigh the benefits of pharmacotherapy in patients with mild hypertension? How does intervention with other cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking or high lipid intake, improve the effect of hypotensive treatment? Can mild hypertension be treated effectively without pharmacologic agents? Which are the sociocultural correlates of mild hypertension? How does this condition relate to age, young or old? Should perhaps the patient with "mild" hypertension be left to cope on his own with the natural history of his disease? ("Mild" is in quotes because such a patient is at high risk of cardiovascular complications.) In general terms, where are the lower limits of treatment of hypertension? These and similar issues discussed in this volume pose daily stumbling blocks for the medical practitioner. The huge number of patients with mild or borderline hypertension creates a problem in itself. Nearly twenty years have passed since the first therapeutic trials were started in this domain; yet the field is as topical as ever. Some major trials have been completed recently: Their results are reviewed in this volume and compared with those of earlier studies. Other trials, some of them dealing with non-drug treatment, are under way; their designs and the expectations raised are being discussed. The implications of the study results for medical practice are summarized at the end of the volume in the form of guidelines for treatment and management of the patient with mild hypertension. The results are based on the present state of scientific evidence, as interpreted by forty prominent scientists who participated in the conference. Agreement on some details was hard to reach, showing once again that the same facts may be interpreted in different ways, but some compromises were made and consensus was achieved. This volume will be of interest to medical practitioners confronted with the problems of mild hypertension, to the advanced clinician who will learn how present day knowledge is being generated through trials that are often huge cooperative ventures, and to the researcher who will find an up-to-date, comprehensive account of mild hypertension research. T. Strasser D. G ant en