Treatment of hypertension: state of the art in 1979.

1. The results of the Veterans Administration Co-operative Study have been extended by the subsequent clinical trials, which included patients of both sexes and with less vascular disease. The later studies confirm the effectiveness of treatment in preventing most complications except myocardial infarction and sudden death. Furthermore, the lower diastolic blood pressure in which treatment has been shown to have a significant beneficial effect has been lowered from 105 mmHg as indicated by the Veterans Study to 100 mmHg as shown by the much larger Australian trial. The possibility of reducing the incidence of sudden death and fatal myocardial infarction has been suggested by other recent control trials using beta-adrenoreceptor-blocking drugs, an approach that needs further exploration. 2. A number of interesting and useful new drugs have appeared which include tienilic acid, minoxidil, saralasin and captopril, and in addition recent controlled trials have re-emphasized the effectiveness of the old drug, reserpine, when combined with a diuretic. The art of treatment of hypertension therefore appears to be in a healthy state and we should expect more advances in the future.