[Current trends in the treatment of arterial hypertension]

Today's approach to the treatment of patients with arterial hypertension is no longer based solely on reducing high pressure values but forms part of a broader context designed to reduce the overall cardiovascular risk. The very decision of whether to begin anti-hypertensive treatment or not depends both on the degree of hypertension and on the presence or otherwis of other risk factors, organ damage or associated pathological conditions. The present paper summarises recent indications provided by the guidelines issued in 2003 by the European Society of Hypertension and the European Society of Cardiology. The criteria for planning anti-hypertensive treatment in patients with a different level of cardiovascular risk are the subject of particularly concentrated discussion and the approach to the hypertens patient in special clinical conditions such as ageing, diabetes mellitus, the presence of renal, cerebrovascular or coronary pathology and pregnancy will be treated separately