Antihypertensive treatments in patients affected by aortic valve stenosis

Systemic hypertension and aortic valve stenosis (AVS) are both age-related diseases. Severe aortic stenosis affects ≈2% to 5% of adults age > 65 years. Systemic hypertension is a frequent comorbidity in patients with AVS and is coexistent for a longer period of time before AVS is treated. Essential systemic hypertension, per se, plays an important role in the creation of lesions on the aortic side of the valve, the region of higher exposure to tension stress. The subsequent endothelial defect represents the principal site of inflammatory process and oxidative stress, leading to aortic sclerosis and calcification. In this review, we want to describe the pharmacological features of the common antihypertensive drugs, analysing the recent literature, in order to achieve useful and updated information about the best treatment of systemic hypertension in patients with concomitant severe aortic stenosis.