The treatment of cardiovascular disease continuum: focus on prevention and RAS blockade.

The cardiovascular disease continuum is a sequence of events, which begins with a host of risk factors consisting of diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, hypertension, smoking and visceral obesity. If left untreated, it will inexorably progress to atherosclerosis, CAD, myocardial infarction, left ventricular remodeling, LVH, left ventricular enlargement, and eventually end-stage heart failure and death. Treatment intervention at any stage of its course will prevent or delay its further progression.

Cardiac changes from beta-blocker, diuretic and minoxidil combination in hypertension.

The open, long-term antihypertensive, hemodynamic and metabolic effects of betaxolol in combination with furosemide and minoxidil were investigated on 30 male patients with moderate to severe essential hypertension. Twenty-three patients were observed for 104 weeks, and 7 patients for 128 weeks. The patients were seen in the clinic every 4 weeks.

Treatment of severe hypertension with atenolol and betaxolol with once-daily regimens. Hemodynamic aspects.

The effectiveness and safety of once-daily administration of drugs in the treatment of moderate to severe hypertension was studied. Forty men taking diuretics were randomized to atenolol (A, n = 18), 50 mg/day, or betaxolol (B, n = 22), a new B1-blocker, 20 mg/day, if their SDAP was 105 to 125 mm Hg at baseline (weeks 2 to 4). At week 6, if SDAP was greater than 95 mm Hg, minoxidil (M), 5.

Antihypertensive effectiveness of amlodipine in combination with hydrochlorothiazide.

The antihypertensive and metabolic effects of amlodipine, a new calcium-channel blocker, in combination with hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) were compared with those of HCTZ in combination with placebo. After four weeks open treatment with HCTZ 50 mg/d, 20 patients were blindly allocated to receive placebo and 20 to receive amlodipine, if their diastolic arterial pressure supine and upright was 95 to 115 mm Hg. The patients were seen in the clinic every two weeks for 12 more weeks, where their arterial pressure (AP) and heart rate (HR) were measured supine and upright.

Monotherapy of hypertension with darodipine: a new calcium-channel blocker.

Calcium-channel blockers are increasingly used as single agents for the treatment of essential hypertension. Following three weeks of single-blind placebo therapy, 43 patients with essential hypertension were randomized into four groups. Group 1 (10 patients) received placebo twice a day, Group 2 (13 patients) received darodipine (PY 108-068) 50 mg twice a day, Group 3 (9 patients) received darodipine 100 mg twice a day, and Group 4 (11 patients) received darodipine 150 mg twice a day.