Current Recommendations for Initial Therapy in Hypertension: Are They Still Valid?: Introduction

This symposium will address questions regarding current recommendations for initial therapy in the management of hypertension: Are we treating too many hypertensive patients or too few? When do we start treatment with medications and what medications should we use? Professor Lawrence Ramsay from England will discuss the concept of absolute versus relative risk and review the long-term hypertension treatment trials and what they have and have not told us. Dr. Michael Weber of New York will discuss some newer data on angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor antagonists, and calcium channel blockers and attempt to answer the question: are these data sufficient to warrant recommending these agents as initial therapy? Finally, Dr. Henry Black of Chicago and I will update a new-old concept: is it time to consider low-dose fixed combination therapy as initial treatment in hypertension?