Key Points and Practical Recommendations⢠The angiotensin receptor blockers are highly effective antihypertensive agents that are also particularly well tolerated.⢠There are no major differences in efficacy or other clinical characteristics among older drugs in this class, although some of the newer agents may more effectively reduce blood pressure than older agents.⢠Major randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that angiotensin receptor blockers provide significant outcomes benefits in conditions such as diabetic nephropathy, chronic heart failure or heart failure following myocardial infarction, hypertension with left ventricular hypertrophy and in patients whose histories of previous events or complicated diabetes puts them at high cardiovascular risk.⢠In treating hypertension, angiotensin receptor blockers can be used as first-line therapy or added at later stages of treatment titration.⢠These drugs are very effective in combination with thiazide diuretics or calcium channel blockers and there are several single-pill, fixed-dose combinations of angiotensin receptor blockers with hydrochlorothiazide, amlodipine, or aliskiren. These combinations can be given as initial therapy (where appropriate) or later in the course of treatment. Three-drug combinations (angiotensin receptor blocker plus amlodipine plus hydrochlorothiazide and angiotensin receptor blocker plus aliskiren plus hydrochlorothiazide) are also available. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2011;13:677-686. Ă2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) plays an important role in protecting vertebrates against cardiovascular collapse due to hypotension and volume loss in the event of traumatic injury that involves blood loss. In certain humans, however, inappropriate or exaggerated activity of the RAAS contributes to the development of hypertension and the initiation of a molecular cascade in tissues with consequent injury to critical organs such as the brain, kidneys, heart, and blood vessels. 1-3 As understanding of the pathologic role of the RAAS in hypertensive vascular disease has unfolded during the past century, so has the interest in developing drugs that could interdict specific components of the RAAS. The first of the RAAS-blocking drugs to become commercially available were the aldosterone antagonists in the 1970s, followed by the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in the 1980s and the angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) in the 1990s. Unlike ACE inhibitors that inhibit the conversion of angiotensin I to II, ARBs bind to the angiotensin II AT 1 receptor, thereby inhibiting the cellular actions of angiotension II mediated by the receptor in which the tissue is located. During the past 20 years, studies in the laboratory and clinic have documented that ARBs, either alone or in combination with drugs of other classes, reduce blood pressure (BP) in hypertensive animals and humans; reduce rates of myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and progression of renal impairment; and positively impact oth...