[Treatment of systemic arterial hypertension].
The World Health Organization (WHO) and several other international committees on the study of hypertension define that a patient with blood pressure between 140/90-150/95 mmHg must be treated. In the first stage of hypertension it is possible to modify it with life style changes, but if high blood pressure persists, then drug therapy must be evaluated carefully. Drug therapy management is individualized and based upon age, race, previous history of hypertension, and risks for target systemic organs. At the National Institute of Cardiology "Ignacio Chávez" in Mexico City there is a wide experience with drugs of several groups, and treatment is chosen to give the patient the greatest advantage and quality of life. Nursing requires a clear and precise knowledge of drug therapy in hypertension, as well as the understanding of its physiopathology to support in an effective way each one of the interventions. Through the Nursing process, Nurses direct their actions not only to the correct administration of drugs, but also, based on the patients background, to orient, inform, and educate the patient about disease to achieve a strict drug therapy compliance, in order to reach the main goal of the process, the which is the best quality of life possible.