A Conceptual Overview of Hypertension with Special Consideration to Its Etiological & Clinical Classification, Pathophysiology and Treatment

About author
Mithun Bhowmick*, Tamizharasi Sengodan, Sivakumar Thangavel
Department of Pharmaceutics,
Nandha College of Pharmacy and Research Institute, Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases are one of the life threatening diseases of mankind and hypertension is the most common cardiovascular disease, which requires constant monitoring. It is well known that hypertension is a major factor for congestive cardiac failure and coronary artery disease. Elevated arterial pressure due to hypertension causes pathological changes in the vasculature and hypertrophy of the left ventricle. As a consequence, hypertension is the principal cause of the stroke, leads to disease of the coronary arteries with myocardial infarction and sudden death, and is a major contributor to cardiac failure. It is very much essential to control the hypertension and maintain sufficient blood circulation to heart to reduce the morbidity and make the patient to lead a near normal life. Control of hypertension reverses the risk of congestive cardiac failure; Recommendations as to forms of treatment regimens to be adopted including non pharmacological, monotherapy and appropriate combination therapy discussed exhaustively.
Key words: Cardiovascular disease, Hypertension, elevated arterial pressure, pathological Changes, Monotherapy, Combination therapy
Introduction
The World Health Organization describes hypertension as the number one risk factor for mortality, as worldwide annually 7.5 million deaths (13% of all deaths) are attributable to high blood pressure (BP)-related diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases, and was ranked 13th in the leading global causes of death for all ages. Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure, coronary heart disease, peripheral artery disease and stroke. Hypertension is often referred to as the ‘silent killer’, as its presence is usually symptomless.