Feline hypertension: clinical findings and response to antihypertensive treatment in 30 cases

Systolic hypertension was diagnosed in 30 cats. At diagnosis, 16 of those w ere found to be in chronic renal failure only, while five were azotaemic an d either receiving treatment for hyperthyroidism (four cases) or were untre ated hyperthyroid cases (one case). Two cases were untreated hyperthyroid c ases with no evidence of azotaemia and the remaining seven cases had no def initive diagnosis of the underlying cause of their hypertension, The succes sful treatment used for the majority of cases was amlodipine, which lowered systolic blood pressure from 202.5 +/- 16.8 to 153.2 +/- 21.6 mmHg (mean /-SD; n=29) within the first 50 days. Each case was followed for at least t hree months, or to the end of its natural life, and each cat was re-examine d every six to eight weeks, Systolic blood pressure was kept below a target value of 165 mmHg in 58 per cent of cases treated for three months or long er, At the time of writing, 19 of the cases had died or been euthanased wit h a median treatment time of 203 days, one case was lost to follow-up and 1 0 cases were still alive, nine of which had been treated for six months or more. Amlodipine can be used for long-term control of feline systemic hyper tension.