Current Hypertension Reviews - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2005

Correction of cardiovascular risk factors is a mainstay of the treatment of hypertensive patients that have developed or might develop target organ damage. In addition to traditional risk factors, such as smoking, diabetes, obesity, and dyslipidemia, clinical research has identified additional conditions that put patients at a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease and that might achieve particular relevance in the hyp Read More

Endothelial dysfunction, a hallmark of many vascular diseases such as diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis and essential hypertension, refers to significant impairment of a majority of endothelial activities e.g. modulation of vasomotor tone and inhibition of smooth muscle cell proliferation and/or migration. Several factors including increased synthesis of vasoconstrictor agents through the cyclooxygenase pathway and dysr Read More

Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (LVH) is a risk factor for major cardiovascular diseases as stroke, myocardial infarction and sudden death, and is sustained by several hemodynamic and non-hemodynamic mechanisms. A wide spectrum of alterations in left ventricular hypertrophy geometric pattern can take the form of normal left ventricle, concentric left ventricular remodeling, concentric left ventricular hypertrophy, eccent Read More

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in most developed countries. Cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia initiate structural and functional abnormalities in the arterial wall, leading to the development of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is characterized by the stiffening and/or thickening of the arterial wall. Aortic pulse wave velocity as evaluated by carotid Read More

Nephropathy developing from hypertension and/or non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is becoming increasingly prevalent in the world population. Although there is a significant amount of research being conducted in this area, the etiologies of nephropathy are not known. It has been proposed that hemodynamic and metabolic alterations in the kidney contribute to the development and progression of nephropat Read More

Vascular remodeling and hypertrophy/hyperplasia of the heart and kidney are known to be major servomechanisms of long-term maintenance of elevated blood pressure and the development of cardiovascular and renal complications seen in hypertension. Several lines of evidence suggest that these abnormalities are genetically determined and evoke an imbalance between cell proliferation and death. During the last 2 dec Read More

Primary aldosteronism (PA) is a common form of endocrine hypertension in which aldosterone production is inappropriate and at least partially autonomous of the renin-angiotensin system. Recent studies using the plasma aldosterone/plasma renin activity (PRA) ratio (ARR) as a screening test for both hypokalaemic and normokalaemic hypertensives have reported a high prevalence of this disease, with PA accounting for u Read More

The four SDH genes encode succinate dehydrogenase (SDHA and SDHB) and its anchoring subunits (SDHC and SDHD), which constitute complex II of the mitochondrial membrane, involved both in the respiratory chain and the Krebs cycle. Mutations of SDHD and less frequently SDHB and SDHC are at the origin of rare hereditary forms of head and neck paraganglioma. Interestingly, SDHB mutations are also a major cause of spo Read More

Hypertension affects an estimated thirty percent of all Americans, a number expected to climb as the population ages. At some point in their life, approximately one percent of these patients will experience a hypertensive crisis-either a hypertensive urgency or emergency. These rapid and worrisome elevations in blood pressure account for many visits to emergency departments and urgent treatment in primary care settin Read More