Double-blind comparison of trimazosin and propranolol in essential hypertension

This report describes a double-blind, parallel, comparative study of trimazosin (+/- polythiazide) and propranolol (+/- polythiazide) in 130 patients with essential hypertension. Both treatment regimens were shown to be effective in achieving statistically significant sustained reduction in blood pressure. Propranolol alone was somewhat more effective, at the doses selected, than trimazosin alone, but the hypertension of nonresponders in each treatment group was effectively controlled by the addition of low doses of polythiazide. Trimazosin had no effect on heart rate, whereas propranolol significantly lowered resting heart rates, which was occasionally troublesome. Side effects were less frequent in the trimazosin-treated group. Trimazosin lowered serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen, an effect significantly different from that of propranolol. There was also a tendency for serum uric acid to rise in patients receiving propranolol and fall in those receiving trimazosin; polythiazide significantly raised uric acid levels. The effects of trimazosin and propranolol on the lipid profile were small, but the difference between the increase in the high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol fraction in trimazosin-treated patients and the decrease in propranolol-treated patients was significant and thought to be of interest.