Common Hypertension Drugs Can Raise Blood Pressure in Certain Patients
Posted Aug 19 2010 6:27pm
Commonly prescribed drugs used to lower blood pressure can actually have the opposite effect — raising blood pressure in a statistically significant percentage of patients. A new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University suggests that doctors could avoid this problem — and select drugs most suitable for their patients — by measuring blood levels of the enzyme renin through a blood test that is becoming more widely available. The study appears in the August online edition of the American Journal of Hypertension.
Michael Alderman, M.D.“Our findings suggest that physicians should use renin levels to predict the most appropriate first drug for treating patients with hypertension,” says lead author Michael Alderman, M.D., professor of epidemiology & population health and of medicine at Einstein. “This would increase the likelihood of achieving blood pressure control and reduce the need for patients to take additional antihypertensive medications.”
The study involved 945 patients who were enrolled in a workplace antihypertensive treatment program in New York City from 1981 to 1998. All had a systolic blood pressure (SBP) of at least 140 mmHg. SBP, the top number in the blood pressure reading, represents the amount of force that blood exerts on the walls of blood vessels when the heart contracts. No patients were receiving treatment for high blood pressure before enrolling in the study.
Commonly prescribed drugs used to lower blood pressure can actually have the opposite effect — raising blood pressure in a statistically significant percentage of patients. A new study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University suggests that doctors could avoid this problem — and select drugs most suitable for their patients — by measuring blood levels of the enzyme renin through a blood test that is becoming more widely available. The study appears in the August online edition of the American Journal of Hypertension.
Michael Alderman, M.D.“Our findings suggest that physicians should use renin levels to predict the most appropriate first drug for treating patients with hypertension,” says lead author Michael Alderman, M.D., professor of epidemiology & population health and of medicine at Einstein. “This would increase the likelihood of achieving blood pressure control and reduce the need for patients to take additional antihypertensive medications.”
The study involved 945 patients who were enrolled in a workplace antihypertensive treatment program in New York City from 1981 to 1998. All had a systolic blood pressure (SBP) of at least 140 mmHg. SBP, the top number in the blood pressure reading, represents the amount of force that blood exerts on the walls of blood vessels when the heart contracts. No patients were receiving treatment for high blood pressure before enrolling in the study.