Prevalence of complications and response to different treatments of hypertension in African Americans and white Americans in the U.S.

The aim of this review is to compare the prevalence of complications and response to different treatment for hypertension in African and European Americans. African Americans when compared to European Americans respond less favorably to beta-blockers (BB's) and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI's). Nevertheless the observed response of African Americans to ACEI's and BB's is significant and these agents are very effective in this subgroup. African American race is not a clinically significant predictor of poor response to any class of antihypertensive therapy and there is little justification to use racial profiling as a criterion for choice of medication. Evidence to restrict or defer usage of BB's and ACEI's in African Americans is lacking. The mortality from hypertensive heart disease, stroke, and the incidence of hypertensive renal disease is higher in African Americans which leads some investigators to postulate that hypertension in African Americans is intrinsically different from whites. They therefore search for a separate etiology and suggest specific approaches to treatment. Awareness of racial differences in hypertension outcomes evolved in the U.S. in an historical context that does not fully appreciate that race is often a surrogate for many social and economic factors that influence health status and health care delivery in the U.S. Poor outcomes in African Americans occur in many diseases including hypertension.