The value of lowering blood pressure

According to the Canadian Heart Health Survey, only 14% of Canadian hypertensive patients are aware of their disease and are treated appropriately. One of the reasons for this could be that physicians are confused by an excess of confusing and contradictory information regarding the choice of drugs. Two recent publications may contribute to a much-needed simplification of the problem. The Blood Pressure Lowering Treatment Trialists' Collaboration published a meta-analysis based on 29 randomized trials that comprised a total of more that 162,000 participants. The treatment regimens were based on angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, diuretics, beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers. The main finding of the meta-analysis was that treatment with any of the blood pressure-lowering regimens reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events, and the extent of these risk reductions was directly related to the degree of blood pressure lowering. The Valsartan Antihypertensive Long-term Use Evaluation (VALUE) compared valsartan with amlodipine. At the end of the study, the reductions in blood pressure from baseline were 17.3/9.9 mmHg in the amlodipine group and 15.2/8.2 mmHg in the valsartan group (P<0.0001). There was a significantly lower incidence of myocardial infarction in the amlodipine group (4.1%) than in the valsartan group (4.8%). From these two studies, it would be reasonable to conclude that the treatment of elevated blood pressure has two main goals: to achieve a normal blood pressure and to produce a happy patient. The agent or agents used to obtain these goals are relatively unimportant.