WEDNESDAY, May 3, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Diuretic drugs are the best first step in treating high blood pressure to prevent heart failure, concludes a new U.S. study.
For this study, researchers analyzed data on over 33,000 patients with high blood pressure and one or more risk factors for heart disease. The patients were given different types of medicines to treat their hypertension, including calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors, or diuretics, which are the least expensive kind of high blood pressure medicines.
As reported Monday in the journal Circulation, during the first year, patients who received the calcium channel blocker or ACE inhibitor were 40 percent more likely to be hospitalized or die from heart failure than those who took a diuretic. However, those differences diminished in later years, with patients taking the calcium channel blocker 22 percent more likely to develop serious heart failure than those taking either diuretics or ACE inhibitors.
"Diuretics are better than calcium channel blockers at preventing heart failure, and better, at least in the short term, than ACE inhibitors," study lead author Dr. Barry R. Davis, professor and director of the biostatistics division, University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, said in a prepared statement.
"One reason diuretics may have an advantage over other drugs is that they are good at decreasing the volume that the heart has to deal with, and the other drugs don't do that. ACE inhibitors remodel the heart, which may have a more long-term effect on preventing heart failure," Davis said.
He noted that more than 90 percent of people who develop heart failure first had high blood pressure.
"Although not as well recognized as its effects on stroke and heart attack, one of the benefits of treating high blood pressure is that it helps prevent heart failure," Davis said.
"This study provides evidence for the superiority of diuretics over calcium channel blockers and ACE inhibitors as the base of an anti-hypertensive regimen to prevent heart failure," he added.
The study received financial support from drug maker Pfizer Inc. and contributions of study medications from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
More information
The American Heart Association has more about controlling high blood pressure.
