Several reasons make resistant hypertension an issue of major current interest. To
mention just a few, this condition (which is defined as absence of blood pressure
control despite multidrug treatment at adequate individual drug doses) is by no
means rare. Although varying with the clinical setting in which resistant hypertension
is studied, the consensus is that this condition may affect about 10% of the
overall hypertensive population, which amounts to more than 6 million patients in
the USA and more than 10 millions in Europe.
Secondly, patients with resistant hypertension have a high cardiovascular risk,
with a much greater chance of developing heart failure, cerebrovascular or coronary
disease, and endstage renal disease than patients in which blood pressure is
more easily controlled