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Old antihypertensive agents-diuretics and β-Blockers: Do we know how and in whom they lower blood pressure?

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Abstract

Morbidity and mortality data that increasingly favor the use of diuretics and ⨿-blockers continue to accumulate. Nonetheless, the use of these agentsóparticularly diureticsóis viewed as a dated practice. The issue of which antihypertensive drug to use will remain complex and confusing as the marketing juggernauts of the pharmaceutical industry vigorously promote drug classes such as angiotensinconverting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin-receptor antagonists, and calcium-channel blockers. A pharmacologic middle ground will probably be reached in the form of fixed-dose combination therapy. Diuretics and b-blockers are mechanistically rational when combined with numerous other drugs; thus, the issue of which drug should be used to begin treatment will be settled by a truce, albeit an uneasy one, favoring the increased use of fixed-dose combination antihypertensive therapy.

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  1. MCV Station, Medical College of Virginia of Virginia Commonwealth University, Box 980160, 23298-0160, Richmond, Virginia, USA

    Domenic A. Sica MD

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Sica, D.A. Old antihypertensive agents-diuretics and β-Blockers: Do we know how and in whom they lower blood pressure?. Current Science Inc 1, 296–304 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11906-999-0037-2

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