[Role of beta-blockers in the treatment of arterial hypertension].

The introduction, more than twenty years ago, of beta-blockers in the treatment of arterial hypertension, represented a significant advance. With these medications, many hypertensive patients are effectively under control and malignant hypertension is practically inexistent. Today, the treatment of hypertension is markedly improved with the development of new, active medications, while the beta-blockers family has markedly evolved. The role of beta-blockers in the treatment of hypertension, must therefore be re-evaluated according to their properties as compared to those of other classes of antihypertensive medications. Indeed, there are standard contraindications to he use of beta-blockers, sometimes resulting in adverse reactions, either clinical (fatigue, sexual disorders, vasomotor syndromes)--much less frequent with the new molecules--or biological (especially serum lipid levels), the consequences of which remains ill-defined--some beta-blockers appear practically without any harmful effect. Actually, despite these drawbacks, usually minimal, there are numerous and strong arguments in favor of the use of beta-blockers in the treatment of hypertension: 1) their significant follow-up in the treatment of hypertension; this is a well-known argument; 2) their effectiveness in hypertension, as a single drug and single daily dose; 3) their cost, which is lower than that of new anti-hypertensive medications; 4) their cardio-protective role, demonstrated by experimental data (myocardial protection and anti-arrhythmic effect in experimental ischemia), and clinical data (improvement of left ventricular hypertrophy, control of blood pressure increase during exertion and stress, secondary prevention after myocardial infarction).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)