Diagnosis of hypertension and outline of hypertension treatment

In this review first I described the procedures of diagnosis in patients with essential hypertension. Blood pressure level, risk factor for cardiovascular disease and organ damage due to hypertension are essential in evaluating a patient with hypertension at outpatient clinic. Those criteria are based on Hypertension Treatment Guidelines 2000 published by Japanese Society of Hypertension last year. Next I described the outline of treatment of hypertensive patients according to the above guidelines. The guidelines is our interpretation of the world literature and of current opinions together with our largely documented experience based on the management of many hypertensive patients in Japan. The first-line antihypertensive drugs are long-acting Ca antagonists, ACE inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor antagonists, diuretics, beta-blockers and alpha-blockers.