[Rational hypertension treatment].

The primary objective of antihypertensive treatment is to prevent the involvement of target-organs, including hypertensive vascular disease of the kidney or left ventricular hypertrophy. Antihypertensive treatment should not worsen other cardiovascular risk factors (e.g. lipids) or impair quality of life. Contemporary efforts to optimize antihypertensive therapy are focused on single-drug therapy and on individualizing treatment according to patients age, sex, race and the presence of concomitant illnesses and therapies, in order to improve compliance and reduce overall cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Several antihypertensive drugs such as ACE-inhibitors, beta-adrenergic-receptor antagonists, calcium channel blockers, diuretics, alpha-adrenergic-receptor antagonists, and newer substances such as imidazoline-receptor antagonists and angiotensin-II antagonists are discussed.