Current Hypertension Reviews - Volume 7, Issue 2, 2011

Despite the large amount of information collected over the past years, several aspects related to the link between blood pressure and metabolic abnormalities remain unclear. This is particularly the case for the pathophysiology of the blood pressure/metabolic relationships and, more specifically, for the hypothesis that abnormalities in sympathetic cardiovascular function may represent the driving force responsible on Read More

Cardiometabolic diseases, such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, are characterized by well known abnormalities in the hemodynamic profile. Only in recent years, however, evidence has been collected that cardiometabolic diseases are also characterized by neuroadrenergic alterations, the most important being the sympathetic overactivity. The neuroadrenergic abnormality 1) occurs early in Read More

The paper will review the contribution of the PAMELA Research Project to the epidemiology, pathophysiology and treatment of hypertension and hypertension-related cardiometabolic disease. This will be firstly done by examining the results of the PAMELA studies planned and performed in the past 20 years aimed at defining normality values for home and ambulatory blood pressure values as well as at determining precise f Read More

In the last decade there has been an accelerated growth in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS), especially in Latin American countries, which has led an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). Recently has been raised the relationship between the autonomic nervous system (ANS), endothelial dysfunction (ED) and the appearance of MS. In the present article we review Read More

Introduction: Hypertension may increase the risk for stroke and is frequently associated with subcortical and periventricular white matter lesions (WML). This is considered a prognostic factor for the development of stroke and cognitive impairment, particularly in attention processes. Additionally, in elderly subjects, it is known the implications of alterations in the neural cardiovascular regulation and the cardiovascular Read More

Epidemiological and clinical evidence have shown a close association between hypertension, obesity, IGT or NIDDM, and dyslipidemia. The activation of sympathetic nervous system plays a role in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension and its inhibition is of a therapeutic value. Rilmenidine is an oxazoline compound with antihypertensive properties that acts mainly on the brain stem but also in the kidneys, where Read More

Hypertension is common in the elderly, and with an increasing ageing population in the industrialised world, has become a major public health issue. Hypertension in the elderly may have many different patterns of presentation such as Systolic-Diastolic Hypertension, Isolated Systolic Hypertension, Nocturnal Hypertension, Hypertension accompanied by Postural Hypotension and Supine Hypertension in the back ground Read More

The Amlodipine Cohort study by Internet-based research for Evaluation of Efficacy (ACHIEVE) was conducted to assess the efficacy of amlodipine 10mg daily. Hypertensive patients, who were up-titrated from amlodipine 5mg to 10mg daily, were enrolled by medical practitioners using web-based registration between March 9 and July 31, 2009. The primary outcomes were the blood pressure (BP) at clinic and at home, and t Read More

It has been known for some time that dietary salt intake correlates with the prevalence of cardiovascular disease. However, the molecular link between dietary salt and cardiovascular disease is poorly understood. On this background, it has been observed that there are a class of hormones called cardiotonic steroids whose concentrations increase in response to increases in dietary salt. We have shown that some of these ho Read More

Prehypertension is known to be a risk factor for hypertension and cardiovascular disease. If prehypertension is left untreated, the blood pressure continues to increase due to multiple accelerators which facilitate the development of hypertension. Studies using animal models of hypertension suggested that interruption of these mechanisms by transient inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) attenuates the developme Read More