Optimal Antihypertensive Combination Treatments

Over the past three decades it has been consistently shown that optimal blood pressure (BP) control significantly reduced cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality [1]. Despite solid evidence in favour of benefits derived from BP reductions, however, hypertension control in treated hypertensive patients remains suboptimal worldwide [2, 3]. In addition, proportions of diagnosed and treated hypertensive patients remain largely unchanged over the last two decades[4]. Multiple factors may be advocated to explain this observation, including variation in healthcare access and availability [5, 6], attitudes amongst clinicians towards hypertension [7, 8], inaccuracy in BP measurements [9] and underuse or under dosage of antihypertensive drugs in both monotherapy and in combination therapy [10, 11].On the basis of these considerations, it is beyond the aim of this article to discuss the socioeconomic impact on healthcare and BP measurement techniques. Instead it will seek to explain the importance of attaining early optimal BP control and the use of combination therapy as a new paradigm for the modern clinical management of hypertension.