Resistant hypertension and the Birmingham Hypertension Square.

Recent guidelines for the treatment of hypertension place great emphasis on tighter blood pressure control, especially in the presence of hypertensive target organ damage and diabetes. In order to achieve these treatment targets, more patients will require a combination of antihypertensive medications. However, resistant hypertension may have many possible underlying causes, and clinicians should appreciate how to detect and tackle these potential problems. Effective and synergistic combinations are therefore of vital importance, especially in patients with resistant hypertension. The choice of rational first- and second-line drugs that act in synergy could lead to better blood pressure management as well as significant financial savings for health care resources. The use of the Birmingham Hypertension Square for the optimum choice of add-in drugs for the treatment of resistant hypertension may aid management.