It is now possible, with the variety of available antihypertensive drugs, to treat patients with essential hypertension according to which physiologic mechanism seems to be participating most in elevating arterial pressure. This mechanistic concept of hypertension is not new. Page described it in his Mosaic Theory, and thereby suggested that hypertension may be considered a disease of disregulation. This concept is extremely valuable to the physician in understanding the altered function in his patient caused by disease, and in understanding how judicious selection of antihypertensive therapy will reverse the dire consequences.
(Arch Intern Med 137:772-775, 1977)