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(Hypertension. 2000;35:1177.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

State of Hypertension as We Enter the 21st Century

A Societal Conundrum

Edward D. Frohlich, Editor-in-Chief

	Introduction

 
As one considers the state of the field of hypertension today; and, as we reflect on its evolution over the past several decades, we can come to several important conclusions. First, our knowledge concerning the regulation of arterial pressure has dramatically expanded over the past 50 years. We are now aware of a myriad of physiological mechanisms that interrelate with one another into a highly sophisticated mosaic of mechanisms that account for the multifactorial causation of the number of hypertensive diseases. "Older" mechanisms have, in part, been subsumed by a plethora of candidate genes that, in turn, serve many of these homeostatic mechanisms.¹ Each of these factors has provided the intellectual grist and "feedback" that continues to fuel and stimulate us to continue with our respective investigative activities related to the pathophysiology of the variety of clinical entities that we consider the hypertensive disease. This has truly been the excitement of the science of medical research that keeps us active and interested in this important field of study.

Superimposed on this active dimension of medical science is the satisfaction and success that we have also experienced clinically with the tremendous evolution and success in the care of patients with hypertensive diseases and their complications. At the time that I entered the hypertension scene over 40 years ago, these problems were at the root of a majority of hospitalizations in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, the recent appearance of antibacterial agents was being appreciated by clinicians and, certainly, the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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