Recent advances in the treatment of hypertension

Abstract

Uncontrolled blood pressure remains the single most common cause of death accounting for more than 7 million deaths per year worldwide. Despite the availability of potent lifestyle and pharmacologic approaches, rates of control of blood pressure are unsatisfactory and additional strategies to curb the burden of hypertension are warranted. Several novel pharmacological- and device-based approaches have recently been tested and may prove helpful to achieve better blood pressure control rates and thereby improve cardiovascular outcomes in patients with hypertension.

Keywords::

• aldosterone
• hypertension
• renin–angiotensin system
• sympathetic
• therapy

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Markus Schlaich, Murray Esler, Henry Krum, Felix Mahfoud and Michael Boehm are investigators in clinical trials sponsored by Ardian, Inc. (NCT00483808 and NCT00551304). Paul Sobotka is an employee of Medtronic Ardian. Marcus Schlaich and Murray Esler are supported by Senior Research Fellowships from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia. Dagmara Hering is currently supported by a Research Fellowship from the Foundation for Polish Science KOLUMB/2010-1. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.