[Diuretics and vascular risk factors. Comparison between tienilic acid and chlorothiazide (author's transl)]

Tienilic acid (250 mg/day) was compared with chlorothiazide (500 mg/day) in 25 hypertensive patients in a randomized cross-over study (2 periods of 2 months). Mean supine arterial pressure was lower with tienilic acid than with chlorothiazide (106 +/- 3 vs 111 +/- 3 mm Hg, p less than 0.05) whereas no difference could be noted in body weight, natriuresis and plasma renin activity. Glucose tolerance tests were altered in the same fashion. Serum cholesterol (234 with tienilic acid and 239 mg/dl with chlorothiazide) and serum triglyceride levels (178 with tienilic acid and 179 mg/dl with chlorothiazide) were not different. Serum urate concentrations were lower with tienilic acid (4.8 mg/dl) than with chlorothiazide (7.8 mg/dl) whereas fractional excretion of urate was much higher with tienilic acid (17 +/- 2%) than with chlorothiazide (7 +/- 2%). Thus, the only metabolic advantage of tienilic acid over chlorothiazide is its hypouricemic effect which warrants long term studies to evaluate its vascular prognostic significance.