A combination of newer drugs for hypertension are better than standard treatment procedures
A recent article in The lancet says that a combination of newer drugs for hypertension are better than standard treatment procedures.
Hypertension is the most important preventable cause of premature death in developed countries, and the benefits of anti-hypertensive drugs for prevention of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity are well established. However, no individual trial using standard diuretic or Beta-blocker therapy, or both has shown a significant reduction in coronary heart disease. Previous studies have suggested that newer agents would confer advantages over diuretics and Beta-blockers.Researchers from Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden had compared the effect of combinations of older drugs—atenolol and thiazide—with newer drugs, amlodipine and perindopril. The investigators recruited 19257 patients aged between 40–79 years who had a least three other risk factors for cardiovascular events. Half of the patients were assigned the atenolol based regimen and half the amlodipine-based regimen. After 5 years the investigators found those allocated the amlodipine-based regimen had lower blood pressure values than those on the atenolol -based regimen. They also found that the newer drugs prevented more major cardiovascular events and caused fewer cases of diabetes than the older drugs.
In a second study researchers from Imperial College London, UK had looked at differences in blood pressure and other variables in patients assigned the newer drugs versus those allocated the standard drugs. They found that a reduction in blood pressure was the single biggest contributor to the effect on stroke events, but other factors, such as differences in cholesterol, were more important for coronary events.
Source: Newswise, The Lancet
