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First, a seat; then, an upgrade

Abstract

The Sir Stanley Peart Essay Competition is an annual event run by the British and Irish Hypertension Society to encourage Early Career Researchers to continue the ethos of Sir Stanley Peart. Sir Stanley Peart was a clinician and clinical researcher who made a major contribution to our understanding of blood pressure regulation. He was the first to demonstrate the release of noradrenaline in response to sympathetic nerve stimulation. He was also the first to purify, and determine the structure of, angiotensin and he later isolated the enzyme, renin, and carried out many important investigations of the factors controlling its release in the body. This year, the essay topic was “Do we need new classes of antihypertensive drugs?”. In his prize-winning essay, "First, a seat; then, an upgrade", Dr Sathyanarayanan argues that we do not need new classes of antihypertensive drugs, instead we should focus our attention on addressing the factors that lead to high blood pressure in the first place and use our existing drug classes more effectively.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Stanley Peart Essay Judges for their expert review of this manuscript: Professor Peter Sever, Professor Ian Wilkinson, Professor Philip Chowienczyk, and Dr Sarah Partridge.

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Correspondence to Abilash Sathyanarayanan.

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Competing interests

Professor Phil Chowienczyk has an interest in Centron Diagnostics, a company that has produced technology for blood pressure measurement. Professor Ian B Wilkinson has received research grants from AstraZeneca, GSK and scientific advisory board consultation fees for Viatris, Astra Zeneca and Roche. Dr Abilash Sathyanarayanan, Dr Sarah Partridge and Professor Peter Sever have no competing interests to declare for this manuscript.

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Sathyanarayanan, A. First, a seat; then, an upgrade. J Hum Hypertens 38, 620–623 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-024-00933-2

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