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Starting Antihypertensive Drug Treatment With Combination Therapy: Controversies In Hypertension - Con Side Of The Argument, Zhen-Yu Zhang, Yu-Ling Yu, Kei Asayama, Tine W. Hansen, Gladys E. Maestre, Jan A. Staessen

School of Medicine Publications and Presentations

The 2018 European Society of Cardiology/European Society of Hypertension1 and the 2020 International Society of Hypertension2 guidelines for the management of hypertension proposed that initial combination therapy with 2 antihypertensive agents in a single-pill combination (SPC) is preferred in most patients in need of blood pressure (BP) lowering treatment and should replace the long-standing concept of starting treatment with a single agent, rotating through antihypertensive drug classes, and next moving towards combining drug classes. By moving SPCs forward as the initial BP-lowering strategy, the European1 and International2 Societies of Hypertension Guideline Committees overlooked several principles in …