BACKGROUND Resistant hypertension is a common clinical problem and greatly increases the risk of target organ damage. METHODS We evaluated the characteristics of 279 consecutive patients with resistant hypertension (uncontrolled despite the use of 3 antihypertensive agents) and 53 control subjects (with normotension or hypertension controlled by using <or=2 antihypertensive medications). Part...

T he management of hypertension is based on 2 major approaches: a modification of lifestyle and the lifelong prescription of antihypertensive drugs. 1,2 All hypertension guidelines recognize that " …the most effective therapy prescribed by the most careful clinician will control hypertension only if the patient is motivated to take the prescribed medication and to establish and maintain a healt...

n engl j med 370;15 nejm.org april 10, 2014 1457 2. Messerli FH, Bangalore S. Treatment-resistant hypertension: another Cinderella story. Eur Heart J 2013;34:1175-7. 3. Radio waves to kidneys lower persistent high blood pressure. Press release of the American Heart Association, Dallas, December 17, 2012. 4. Krum H, Schlaich M, Whitbourn R, et al. Catheter-based renal sympathetic denervation for...

Objective Percutaneous transluminal renal artery angioplasty (PTRA) has been recommended for the treatment of renovascular resistant hypertension. However, large randomized trials have reported that PTRA did not improve the outcomes compared with optimal medical therapy in patients with renal artery stenosis (RAS). It is important to identify patients with renovascular hypertension who are like...

Hypertension is an important cardiovascular risk factor and although there have been many improvements in pharmacological treatment, a significant percentage of patients are still considered resistant. The authors describe two cases of radiofrequency renal sympathetic denervation that illustrate the feasibility of this new technique for the treatment of resistant hypertension. The procedure con...

Fluoroquinolones are a key component of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment. We describe the first reported case of probable levofloxacin-associated intracranial hypertension in a 6-year-old girl with pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. The case highlights the potential risk of secondary intracranial hypertension in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients who require prolonged ...

Arterial hypertension is the most prevalent risk factor associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Although pharmacological treatment is generally well tolerated, 5%-20% of patients with hypertension are resistant to medical therapy, which is defined as blood pressure above goal (>140/90 mmHg in general; >130-139/80-85 mmHg in patients with diabetes mellitus; >130/80 mmHg...

The recently published paper entitled “Genetic and adverse health outcome associations with treatment resistant hypertension in GenHAT” by Lynch et al. [1] evaluated the association between 78 candidate gene polymorphisms and treatment resistant hypertension (TRH). Interestingly, the main finding was the association of two genetic variants in the angiotensinogen (AGT) gene, the M allele of rs69...

Topics include antiplatelet drugs for acute coronary syndrome, renal denervation for hypertension, contrast-induced nephropathy, "e-cigarettes," and resistant hypertension.

It is unknown whether the decline in blood pressure (BP) after renal denervation (RDN) is caused by denervation itself or concomitantly improved drug adherence. We aimed to investigate the BP lowering effect of RDN in true treatment-resistant hypertension by excluding patients with poor drug adherence. Patients with resistant hypertension (n=18) were referred for a thorough clinical and laborat...