ABSTRACT
Introduction There are well-described ethnic variations in the incidence, pathophysiology and management of hypertensive disease, which is particularly pertinent to the black or Afro-Caribbean populations in Africa, North America, the Caribbean and Europe. Our understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of hypertensive disease and the optimal treatment of hypertension in non-Caucasian patients continues to evolve, especially with the introduction of new antihypertensive agents and the need for prognostic data in this ethnic population. Nevertheless, it has been our perception that there continues to be some uncertainty over the optimal management of such patients. Indeed, the lack of large, long-term prospective randomized trials with hard outcome data has made it difficult to ascertain the precise benefits for the different antihypertensive agents in non-Caucasian patients. There is also the difficulty of defining (say) a ‘pure’ black (or white) population, as many subgroups within a particular ethnic group may exist.
