[Blood pressure and renin under treatment of hypertension with guanfacine (author's transl)].

The effect of treatment with guanfacine for 12 weeks on blood pressure and plasma renin activity was investigated in 24 hypertensive patients (WHO I--III). After 4 weeks of treatment with varying doses, the blood pressure decreased to 157/91/118 mmHg, and after 12 weeks of treatment it leveled off at 147/83/109 mmHg. Heart rate remained essentially unchanged throughout the observation period. Renin values decreased under therapy from 3.3 to 2.3 ng/ml/h, but at no time during treatment did this decrease correlate with that of blood pressure. Guanfacine treatment is accompanied by relatively few and slight side-effects.