Essential hypertension: historical perspective, mechanisms and an approach to treatment.

ABSTRACT

The mechanisms of essential hypertension have been reviewed and drugs useful in treatment discussed. Although much is known therapy remains largely empiric. Future control of hypertension depends on developments from the laboratory and carefully designed clinical trials that support the empirical. On the horizon, molecular biology promises to be progressing toward unraveling the tangle of the genetic origins of the disease. Perhaps only with this knowledge will completely rational therapy emerge.