The role of plasma renin activity, age, and race in selecting effective initial drug therapy for hypertension.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Strategies for initial drug therapy of hypertension are a thiazide diuretic for all or drug selection based on age/race criteria or on plasma renin activity (PRA). It is uncertain which of these strategies will achieve the highest control rate among patients with stage 1 essential hypertension. We sought to compare control rates among 3 drug selection strategies: (i) thiazide diuretic for all, (ii) thiazide diuretic for all black subjects and white subjects aged ≥50 years and a renin-angiotensin system blocker for white subjects aged <50 years, or (iii) thiazide diuretic for PRA < 0.6ng/ml/h (suppressed PRA) and a renin-angiotensin system blocker for PRA ≥ 0.6ng/ml/h (nonsuppressed PRA).

Methods

Blood pressure responses from the Genetic Epidemiology of Responses t

SUBMITTER: Schwartz GL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3816320 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature