Analysis of pharmacotherapy of hypertension in out-patients

In the present pilot study an attempt was made to evaluate the usefulness of results obtained about the treatment of patients suffering from high blood pressure for a pharmacoepidemiological study of the therapeutic value of antihypertensive agents. Data from 90 hypertensive patients were used in the present retrospective-prospective study. These patients all attended an out-patient clinic located in one of the East-Bohemian districts that are participating in the MONICA programme. Instead of the analysis of the population data, regular blood pressure measurements, plasma glucose levels, and total cholesterol concentrations were measured and analysed. The consumption of various antihypertensive drugs in this study was similar to that found in larger studies performed in other health districts of the Czech Republic. Diuretics were the drugs most frequently prescribed for hypertensive patients. General practitioners rarely prescribed calcium channel blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in 1990 and 1991. The metabolic effects of antihypertensive drugs, mostly diuretics, were not significantly evident. The most frequent occurrence of non-compensated blood pressure was recorded for the treatments with Trimecryton and methyldopa. However, the validity of these findings should be tested in a larger group of hypertensic patients.