Drugs that interrupt the renin-angiotensin system should be among the preferred initial drugs to treat hypertension.

The goal of antihypertensive therapy is to provide effective treatment that can be sustained lifelong, while lowering elevated blood pressure and preventing hypertensive end-organ damage and mortality. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II antagonists (AIIAs) control blood pressure as well as other available classes of antihypertensive drugs. The ACE inhibitors have been demonstrated to reduce the incidence of stroke, reverse left ventricular hypertrophy, and improve congestive heart failure symptomatology and mortality to a similar degree as diuretics and beta-adrenergic blockers. ACE inhibitors reduce postmyocardial infarction recurrence, improve congestive heart failure symptomatology and mortality, and slow the progression of glomerular renal disease. The AIIAs reverse left ventricular hypertrophy. Several of these agents have been shown to improve congestive heart failure symptomology and mortality, to reduce the occurrence of early atherosclerotic vascular disease, and to slow the progression of renal failure in type 2 diabetes mellitus nephropathy. One AIIA has reduced the incidence of end-stage renal disease in non-insulin-dependence diabetes mellitus nephropathy over 3 years. Ideally, antihypertensive therapy should maintain or improve the patients quality of life without creating side effects or adverse laboratory effects. Among the available nine classes of antihypertensive drugs, ACE inhibitors and the AIIAs come close to meeting the description of an ideal drug. AIIAs and ACE inhibitors, two classes of antihypertensive drugs that reduce the activity of the renin-angiotensin II system, should be among the preferred first-step drugs for the treatment of hypertension. Copyright 2003 Le Jacq Communications, Inc.