In recent years, selective destruction of cardiac tissue by radiofrequency energy has become a routine procedure for treatment of some types of cardiac arrhythmias, particularly supraventricular tachycardias (MM Scheinman, Pacing Clin Electrophysiol, 18:1474, 1995).

Carteolol (Cartrol - Abbott) and penbutolol (Levatol - Reed & Carnrick), two oral beta-adrenergic blocking drugs, were recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for once-daily treatment of systemic hypertension. Both drugs are non-selective beta-blockers with mild partial agonist activity. Beta-blockers currently available in the USA for treatment of hypertension are listed in the table on the next page.

Valsartan (Diovan - Novartis), a non-peptide tetrazole, is the second angiotensin II receptor antagonist approved for oral treatment of hypertension by the US Food and Drug Administration. The first was losartan (Cozaar - Medical Letter, 37:57, 1995).

Naltrexone (ReVia -DuPont Pharma), a long-acting oral opioid antagonist previously marketed for treatment of opioid dependence under the trade name Trexan, was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of alcohol dependence. The new trade name will now also be used for the old indication.

Hypertensive emergencies include hypertensive encephalopathy, intracranial hemorrhage with hypertension, aortic dissection, acute pulmonary edema with hypertension, acute cardiac ischemia with hypertension, malignant hypertension and severe hypertension after vascular surgery; hypertensive crisis due to pheochromocytoma or occurring during pregnancy is not discussed in this review. Although immediate reduction of blood pressure is necessary in hypertensive emergencies, an excessive decrease may cause stroke, myocardial infarction or visual changes. Most experienced clinicians aim...

The FDA has approved cemiplimab-rwlc (Libtayo – Regeneron), an immune checkpoint inhibitor, for use in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy for first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in adults with no epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), or ROS1 aberrations and who are not candidates for surgical resection or chemoradiation. The drug was previously approved for first-line treatment of NSCLC in patients whose tumors have high PD-L1 expression and no genomic tumor aberrations....

Axatilimab-csfr (Niktimvo – Incyte), a colony stimulating factor-1 receptor-blocking antibody, has been approved by the FDA for intravenous treatment of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) after failure of at least 2 lines of systemic therapy in patients weighing ≥40 kg. Corticosteroids are generally the first-line treatment for cGVHD. The oral kinase inhibitors ibrutinib (Imbruvica), ruxolitinib (Jakafi), and belumosudil (Rezurock) are also approved for treatment of cGVHD. Extracorporeal photopheresis has been used off-label.

Losartan potassium (Cozaar - Merck), the first angiotensin II receptor antagonist, has been approved for oral treatment of hypertension by the US Food and Drug Administration. It will be marketed both alone and in a fixed-dose combination with the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide (Hyzaar).

The once-monthly, subcutaneously injected calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist erenumab-aooe (Aimovig) was approved by the FDA in 2018 for preventive treatment of migraine in adults. Now the FDA has added a new warning to its labeling about a risk of new-onset hypertension and worsening of preexisting hypertension associated with use of the drug. CGRP is a potent microvascular vasodilator; blocking or deleting it has produced hypertensive effects in animals.

Propafenone (Rythmol - Knoll), a class IC antiarrhythmic drug used in Europe for treatment of various arrhythmias for more than 10 years, was recently marketed in the USA for oral treatment of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias such as sustained ventricular tachycardia. This restrictive labeling reflects concerns arising from the interim report of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial, in which post-myocardial infarction patients with asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic ventricular arrhythmias treated with the class IC antiarrhythmic drugs encainide (Enkaid) or flecainide...