Title: National Medical Research Center for Preventive Medicine, Moscow, Russia
Abstract: Arterial hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. According to Russian and international studies, prevalence of hypertension is approximately 40%. In the next years an increase in the number of patients can be expected. Hypertension is the main independent risk factor for coronary heart disease for all age groups. Modern antihypertensive drugs can provide good control of blood pressure and reduce the incidence of complications and mortality. By prescribing antihypertensive therapy, it is necessary to achieve the target level of blood pressure, for most patients ≤130/80 mm Hg. When prescribing combination therapy, preference should be given to fixed combinations. Approximately 10% of patients with hypertension have resistance to therapy. Such patients often need an extended diagnostic search to exclude pseudoresistance and secondary hypertension. One of the main causes of pseudoresistance is poor adherence to therapy. Patients with resistant hypertension have a higher risk of adverse outcomes compared with patients without this type of disease.