For first-line treatment of hypertension, angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) work as well as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors but are safer, according to a head-to-head analysis of the 2 drug classes. The observational findings support prescribing ARBs over ACE inhibitors for patients starting high blood pressure therapy, the study’s authors wrote in Hypertension.
The 2017 American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines and the 2018 European Society of Cardiology and the European Society of Hypertension (ESC/ESH) guidelines equally recommend several drug classes for first-line hypertension treatment: