Relative benefits of different antihypertensive drugs in the prevention of vascular complications

Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens. 1995 May;4(3):240-4. doi: 10.1097/00041552-199505000-00007.

Abstract

Large-scale clinical trials of antihypertensive drugs that have shown a reduction in morbidity and mortality used the classic step-care treatment design, initiating treatment with a diuretic. Long-term morbidity and mortality reports comparing the newer classes of agents with the traditional antihypertensive agents have not been completed. A recent meta-analysis of 13 randomized, controlled clinical trials of hypertension showed that 18 elderly people, but two to four times as many younger people, needed to be treated for 5 years to prevent one cerebrovascular or cardiac event. Any head-to-head comparisons of one class of antihypertensive agent with another in the prevention of vascular complications will require very large cohorts, even of elderly people, to show a difference. Such trials are ongoing or being planned, but their results will not be available before the next century.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Antihypertensive Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Humans
  • Hypertension / complications
  • Hypertension / drug therapy*
  • Risk Factors
  • Vascular Diseases / etiology
  • Vascular Diseases / prevention & control*

Substances

  • Antihypertensive Agents