System approach to testing hypotensive drugs for prevention of arterial hypertension

Long-term study of new antihypertensive drugs according to the programme worked out by the Cooperative Trial of Drugs for the Prevention of Arterial Hypertension (CTDPAH) is based on a system approach including observation of patients with essential hypertension and secondary hypertension with different initial level of arterial pressure, simultaneous study of the effect of three basic antihypertensive drugs, and evaluation of the action of these drugs with the application of a stepwise scheme. The study is long-term, cooperative (multicentral) and controlled. The first results in 387 patients, obtained in the curse of 5 to 8 months, showed that in nearly half of the patients with stable, mild or moderate hypertension it is possible to use prolonged antihypertensive monotherapy, with one third of these cases showing normalization of pressure, and other third partial effect. Most promising for long-term antihypertensive prevention proves to be prazosin, an alpha 1-postsynaptic adrenoreceptor blocking drug, which in contrast to propranolol has a marked antiatherogenic effect on blood plasma lipoproteins.