Vanessa Pepeliascov¹, Kleber de Magalhães Galvão¹, Dones Cláudio Janz Jr², Helen Dutra Leite³, Felipe de Lara Janz^3,

High blood pressure (HBP) is a multifactorial disease that affects millions of people around the world and contributes to a large number of deaths due to acute myocardial infarction, stroke and chronic kidney disease. Its etiology remains inconclusive, but it is known that it arises of central and peripheral catecholaminergic dysfunction. Thus, cellular mechanisms are still under investigation. Its pathophysiology is characterized by an increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels. The national and international guidelines for hypertension indicate that effective pharmacotherapy provides a control in blood pressure values and mortality⁄ morbidityreduction. Classes of antihypertensive drugs available for clinical use are diuretics, beta-blockers, alpha-blockers, sympatholytic, calcium channel antagonists, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor antagonists of angiotensin II (ARBs). ARBs (i.e.: candesartan, irbesartan, losartan, olmesartan, telmisartan and valsartan)represent current and often used drug class in Brazil.They have different molecular configurations with independent action mechanismsin angiotensin II AT1 receptor. The objective of this paper is to discuss the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy of hypertension, emphasizing the antagonists of angiotensin II used in Brazil, since they constitute a class of antihypertensive drugs that has fewer side effects and greater therapeutic efficacy.

high blood pressure, pharmacotherapy, angiotensin II antagonists