[The best of hypertension in 2006]

The TROPHY study was designed to show the feasibility of pharmacological prevention of hypertension with respect to the group of patients with "prehypertension" as defined by the JNC VII recommendations. This clinical trial compared candesartan 16 mg/day with placebo and the result at 4 years was a reduction in the relative risk of developing hypertension of 15.6%. The antihypertensive drug delayed the onset of hypertension in a mainly overweight masculine population. Staessen, Zhu and O'Brien's groups suggest measuring an index of arterial rigidity obtained from ambulatory blood pressure monitoring: the ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI). This is calculated as [1- slope of systolic/diastolic pressure]. The reference values for AASI vary with age from 0.50 to 0.70. The CAFE study, a spin-off of the ASCOT trial, showed that the central blood pressure decreased more than the peripheral blood pressure with the association amlodipine-perindopril as compared with atenolol and a thiazide diuretic. The capacity of an antihypertensive drug or an association of antihypertensives to decrease the central blood pressure could be a pertinent factor of evaluation to be taken into account in the interpretation of clinical trials. The study of the Italian cohort PAMELA showed a progressive increase in cardiovascular and global mortality with respect to the findings of increased blood pressure by one, two or three methods of measurement (at the office, at home, ambulatory) compared with patients declared normotensive by the same methods. This registry confirmed the implication of masked hypertension on cardiovascular prognosis and also showed that "white coat" hypertension was not completely benign. The "3 cities" study is a French epidemiological study of persons over 65 years of age. The control of the blood pressure of the treated elderly hypertensives was 57% in men and 70% in women when the cut-off was 160/95 mmHg and 31% for all patients in a cut-off level of 140/90 mmHg. Lafontan et al. are studying the mobilisation of fat induced by exercise, resistant to betablockers therapy and attributed to natriuretic peptides. This metabolic pathway could be of relevance in the metabolic syndrome and in cardiac failure. Renin inhibitors, such as aliskiren, are being developed. The outlook is the possible use of these drugs with ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II inhibitors, taking into account the risk/benefit ratio.