[Etozolin and captopril in the treatment of arterial hypertension]

Etozolin is a new diuretic with hypotensive properties. The above research was aimed to evaluating the effects of etozolin, captopril and their combination in a group of 30 patients with essential hypertension; age range 42-74 years, average 76.6. Patients were subdivided into two groups for a controlled cross-over trial. Group I was treated for 4 weeks with daily etozolin doses of 200 mg, and, after a period of withdrawal until basal values were restored, for a further 4-week period with captopril, 25 mg 3 times daily. Group II had the same treatments in the opposite order. After this cross-over experiment, all patients were treated for 16 weeks with both drugs in combination at the same dosage. Treatment with etozolin led to a reduction of arterial blood pressure from 187/112 +/- 10/4 mmHg to 167/99 +/- 7/6 mmHg; for captopril the corresponding figures were from 186/112 +/- 11.5 mmHg to 163/98 +/- 7.4 mmHg and for the combination from 188/112 +/- 10/5 mmHg to 154/86 +/- 6/5 mmHg. These findings confirmed the efficacy of etozolin and captopril alone; the combination of the two drugs led to a significantly more marked reduction of pressure values compared to monotherapy and neutralized such biochemical changes as had been observed after administration of the two drugs alone. Tolerance was excellent for all treatment schedules used.