Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on June 4, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 1, 1976 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1976-0027.pr001
PREFACE
ipvuring the quarter of a century that I have been involved in the search for antihypertensive agents, there has been a continuing trend by the clinician to use antihypertensive therapy in patients with less and less severe hypertensive disease. This has led to a need for agents that are effective in milder degrees of hypertension and substantially free from side effects that might reduce compliance of the patient with the therapeutic regimen. The four papers that comprise this volume provide a concise overview of the current status of antihypertensive agents in use or in the later stages of development in 1975. The saluretic diuretics are not described in detail, although G. Onesti discusses their importance as an integral part of the antihypertensive therapeutic armamentarium. The intensive and extensive research in /^-adrenergic blocking agents is critically reviewed by R. Clarkson. W. Hoefke discusses the centrally acting antihypertensive agents as typified by clonidine and methyldopa. J. E . Francis presents a comprehensive survey of antihypertensive agents with peripheral sites of action. Finally, Onesti discusses the clinician's use of various antihypertensive agents in providing optimal therapy. The development of new agents to permit better control of blood pressure while restoring normal hemodynamics with minimal side effects presents a continuing challenge to the medicinal chemist. Doubtless improved agents that fall into the pharmacological classes now recognized will be developed. The complexity of the interplay of neural and renal factors involved in the control of blood pressure gives hope that other points for therapeutic intervention will be found as our basic knowledge of the pathophysiology of hypertensive vascular disease increases. Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories West Point, Pa. December 22, 1975
EDWARD L . ENGELHARDT
vii Engelhardt; Antihypertensive Agents ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1976.
