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Antihypertensive Agents

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Introduction to Basics of Pharmacology and Toxicology
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Abstract

Nearly 1/6th of the world population are affected with elevated blood pressure due to various etiology. Pharmacologically, hypertension can be controlled with a wide variety of pharmacotherapeutic compounds each falling into a distinct class of drugs. Multiple organs like brain, kidney, blood vessels and heart, various receptors and hormones tightly fine-tune the blood pressure in humans. Hence, drugs like ACEI, ARBs, CCBs, beta-blockers, alpha-blockers, and various others are employed to treat hypertension. Besides drug therapy, dietary and lifestyle modifications play an equal role in controlling hypertension. The choice of antihypertensive agents is specific for each patient and it depends upon the various type of factors like personality, age, race, occupation, comorbid conditions. This chapter will review the clinical pharmacology of antihypertensive drugs used commonly to control hypertension with additional focus on the choice of drug for specific conditions associated with the hypertensive emergency.

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Correspondence to Mageshwaran Lakshmanan .

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Lakshmanan, M. (2021). Antihypertensive Agents. In: Paul, A., Anandabaskar, N., Mathaiyan, J., Raj, G.M. (eds) Introduction to Basics of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6009-9_24

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