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(Hypertension. 2007;50:39.)
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial Commentaries

A Dream Yet To Become True

Heribert Schunkert

From the Universitaetsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Luebeck, Medizinische Klinik II, Luebeck, Germany.

Correspondence to Heribert Schunkert, Universitaetsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Luebeck, Medizinische Klinik II, Ratzeburger Allee 160, D-23538 Luebeck, Germany. E-mail heribert.schunkert@innere2.uni-luebeck.de

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Modern antihypertensive agents banned the life threatening complications of malignant hypertension. Nevertheless, chronic treatment of arterial hypertension is still costly, tedious, and at the population level rather unsuccessful. Even more worrisome is the fact that pharmacological blood pressure normalization in hypertensive patients falls short of neutralizing the cardiovascular risk to the level of normotensive individuals. Given these shortcomings, either permanent cure or long-term prevention of arterial hypertension is desperately awaited.

In this issue of Hypertension, Karin Skov and her coworkers present data from a well-conducted pharmacological study for the prevention of hypertension.¹ The authors hypothesize that inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system in individuals with high familial risk may interfere with the self-accelerating process leading to the manifestation of hypertension. This study mimics the situation in young genetically hypertensive rats in which inhibitors of the system are known to delay the onset of the condition way beyond the active treatment period.^2,3

The present trial studied 110 normotensive young adults in whom both parents had essential hypertension. Double blind treatment with either candesartan or placebo was conducted for 1 year followed by 24 months of no treatment in both arms of the trial. The authors report that the primary outcome, ie, the mean 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, was not different between the 2 groups in the follow-up period, ie, when no active treatment was given in either arm of the study. The authors conclude that temporary treatment of subjects with high familial risk does not delay the onset of hypertension beyond . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Treatment of Young Subjects at High Familial Risk of Future Hypertension With an Angiotensin-Receptor Blocker

Karin Skov, Hans Eiskjær, Hans Erik Hansen, Jens Kristian Madsen, Stinne Kvist, and Michael John Mulvany
Hypertension 2007 50: 89-95. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]