Rapid identification of diabetic patients with essential hypertension sensitive to acebutolol

The antihypertensive effect of 2,000 mg of acebutolol investigated with an acute 48 hr test in 60 diabetic and 60 non-diabetic in-patients with essential hypertension. In hypertensive diabetic patients, acebutolol was induced a significant fall in blood pressure similar to that observed in non-diabetics. The acute antihypertensive effect of acebutolol was not uniform in hypertensive subjects: a significant decrease of blood pressure was observed in 34 diabetics and 31 non-diabetic patients. Fifteen out of the 34 diabetic responders to the 48 hr test were treated by acebutolol alone for six months; a highly significant correlation between the acute and the chronic antihypertensive effect of the beta-blocker was observed. As long-term results paralleled those of the short-term experiment, acute acebutolol administration appears to be a rapid means to select hypertensive diabetics sensitive or resistant to betablockers. Plasma renin activity was not found to give, in hypertensive diabetics, a reliable predictive index of the response to acute administration of acebutolol.