BP drugs may have wider use

Blood pressure lowering drugs should not be limited to people with high blood pressure, researchers have said.

According to a new study, blood pressure lowering drugs may prevent cardiovascular disease and should be offered to anyone old enough to be at risk of a heart attack or stroke, regardless of their blood pressure.

Despite the widespread use of blood pressure lowering drugs and the results of many trials, uncertainty remains about which drugs to use and whom to treat.

But researchers from The London School of Medicine analysed the findings of 147 blood pressure trials, involving 464,000 people.

They found that using blood pressure lowering drugs at standard dose reduced fatal and non-fatal heart attacks by about a quarter and stroke by about a third. Heart failure was also reduced by about a quarter.

The reductions in disease were similar in people with and without clinical cardiovascular disease and regardless of blood pressure before treatment.

Furthermore, the researchers found that using three blood pressure lowering drugs together, each at low dose to minimise side-effects, could reduce heart attacks by about 45% and stroke by about 60%.

“These results show that blood pressure lowering drugs should be offered to anyone at sufficient risk to benefit from treatment, whatever their reason for being at risk,” the researchers said.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal.

[Posted: Fri 22/05/2009]