All national guidelines for the management of hypertension recommend angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) as an initial or add-on antihypertensive therapy. The 8 available ARBs have variable clinical efficacy when used for control of hypertension. Additive blood pressure (BP) lowering effects have been demonstrated when ARBs are combined with thiazide diuretics or dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers, augmenting hypertension control. Furthermore, therapeutic use of ARBs goes beyond their antihypertensive effects with evidence-based benefits in heart failure and diabetic renal disease particularly among ACE inhibitor intolerant patients. On the other hand, combining renin-angiotensin system blocking agents, a formerly common practice among medical subspecialists focusing on the management of hypertension, have ceased to do so as there is not only evidence of cardiovascular benefit, but modest evidence of harm, particularly with regard to renal dysfunction. The ARBs are very well tolerated as monotherapy as well as in combination with other anti-hypertensive medications that improve adherence to therapy and have become a mainstay in the treatment of stage 1 and 2 hypertension.

Several potential vascular risk factors exist for the development and accumulation of subcortical white matter disease in older people. We have reported that in older people followed for up to 4 years white matter hyperintensity (WMH) lesions on magnetic resonance imaging nearly doubled in volume and were associated with alterations in mobility and cognitive function. Herein we review the genetic, metabolic, and vascular risk factors that have been evaluated in association with the development and pathogenesis of WMH in older persons. Our research efforts have focused on systemic hypertension, particularly in the out-of-office setting as 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (BP) has proven to be a stronger indicator of the progression of WMH in older people and the associated functional decline than doctor’s office BP. Based on relations between 24-hour systolic BP levels, the accrual of WMH, and functional decline, we have designed the INFINITY trial, the first interventional study to use ambulatory BP to guide antihypertensive therapy to address this problem in the geriatric population.

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