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The office management of hypertension became more challenging when the therapeutic target of hypertension was lowered from 140/90 to 130/80. Yet, even prior to this, the management of hypertension in this country was suboptimal. Contributing to this shortcoming is inadequate clinician knowledge of the pharmacology of the many available antihypertensive medications and how to combine them to achieve optimal blood pressure control with the least side effects. This presentation will review the current guidelines as they relate to the office management of hypertension, discuss effective, ineffective and potentially harmful antihypertensive drug combinations, present helpful clinical pearls and practice points that are largely unknown to most clinicians, and illustrate these points through a series of entertaining and informative interactive case vignettes that will enable attendees to apply this information in their clinical practices.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this session, participants should be able to:
Define the classification, treatment thresholds, and targets of blood pressure according to the current ACC/AHA Hypertension Guideline
Accurately diagnose hypertension by applying standardized measurement methods for office and out-of-office blood pressure determination
Identify effective, ineffective, and harmful antihypertensive drug combinations based on their pharmacology
Integrate little-known clinical pearls and practice points into antihypertensive drug selection
Apply the previous objectives to specific patient scenarios commonly seen in primary care practice
