Geriatric hypertension: the growing use of calcium-channel blockers.

The recognition of essential hypertension as a heterogeneous entity mandates that therapy be individualized according to the subset of hypertension that characterizes each patient. Choosing the most appropriate therapeutic regimen in elderly hypertensives is complicated by a greater susceptibility to side effects from medications, and by concomitant diseases. Calcium-channel blockers address the pathophysiologic mechanisms of generic hypertension, thus providing clinicians with more specific pharmacologic tools for treating elderly hypertensives. In addition, these agents will avoid many of the side effects of other antihypertensive agents and can ameliorate certain concomitant diseases.