CONTROL OF HYPERTENSION BY HEXAMETHONIUM AND 1-HYDRAZINOPHTHALAZINE

Abstract

SUCCESSFUL control at normotensive levels of the elevated blood pressure of human arterial hypertension theoretically should prevent or forestall all the secondary pathological changes resulting from increased arterial tension. There is, however, a wide body of opinion to the effect that hypertension, once established, is a disturbance necessary or "essential" for the maintenance of circulatory function. With this hypothesis I disagree. Sclerotic and narrowed coronary or cerebral arteries might become thrombosed when intra-arterial tension is lowered, especially if their respective arteriolar beds remain constricted; markedly inadequate renal blood flow may be lowered if renal blood vessels are sclerotic; but these conditions are not common to most cases of arterial hypertension. A true antihypertensive drug of only moderate potency, 1-hydrazinophthalazine,¹was found to be considerably more effective in treatment of patients who had had an unsuccessful sympathectomy than in those suffering from uncomplicated hypertension.²Malignant hypertension was also found