Clinical Pharmacology of Antihypertensive Drugs [antikvár]

ForewordThe concept of the Handbook of Hypertension developed in the late 1970s from a widespread feeling that the diversity of interests and inputs into hypertension research did not lend themselves to publication in a single textbook. The Handbook of Hypertension has now come of age and is recognized as an authoritative source of information and reviews on clinical and research aspects of high blood pressure.The scope of hypertension in man has developed over the last 30 years from the short-term care of a small number of hospitalized patients with severely elevated blood pressure and extensive target-organ failure to a major long-term community-health problem involving a substantial proportion of the population. It appeared possible at one time that the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension could be identified by a limited number of circumscript and straightforward experiments in laboratory animals. This is clearly not so. The field of experimental hypertension has, if anything, expanded even more than clinical practice.We shared with our Publishers the view that the accumulation of biological and clinical knowledge in the field of hypertension had outgrown the limitations of the classical monograph. Moreover, the subject of hypertension by its very nature is a multidisciplinary one, attracting such diverse professionals as biochemists and public health workers, in addition to clinicians. When one tries to envisage what would happen to a single all-encompassing book, it is clear that it could never satisfy the different groups involved in high blood pressure. Some sections would become outdated rapidly while others would have a longer life-span. An alternative, to escape from the constraints of a single textbook and to reconcile the interests of both generalists and specialists, was to choose the format of a serial handbook.The series as it stands has resulted from lengthy discussions with clinicians and scientists. We believe that it will be of interest to many different groups including clinical investigators, house officers, general practitioners, pharmacologists, pharmacists, biological scientists, physiologists and epidemiologists.The present volume 'Clinical Pharmacology of Antihypertensive Drugs' is an update of Volume 5. The rapid developments in this field, the continuing interest in the subject and the popularity of the previous volume have required all chapters to be revised and updated with some entirely rewritten. In addition further chapters have been included to cover new areas of drug development.Listed below are the titles of further volumes currently in preparation as well as revised or updated editions of eariier volumes.Hypertension in the Elderly (Editors: A. Amery and J. Staessen)Management of the Hypertensive Patient (Editors; F.R. Biihler and J.H. Laragh)Clinical Aspects of Hypertension - revised and updated (Editor: J.I.S. Robertson)Each volume is intended to be complete and separate in its own right, and not dependent on other volumes in the series. We have accepted some degree of overlap between volumes, but this is unavoidable and, in our view, even desirable in such a broad field.The terminology used in the Handbook is oriented to the American style of spelling. Standardization has been adapted as far as possible to the recommendations issued