A new treatment strategy for hypertension can cut the risk of strokes by around 25 percent and coronary events by around 15 percent according to the preliminary results of a major international trial announced at the American College of Cardiology Late Breaking Clinical Trials II Meeting in Orlando today.
The ‘first look’ at the data also found that those on the new treatment strategy had a one third less chance of developing diabetes compared with the older strategy.
The 19,000 patient Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT) had been comparing a new treatment strategy for hypertension, or high blood pressure, against an old one, in order to discover which is better at preventing various cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes.
In November 2004, the trial was stopped after the Steering Committee of ASCOT accepted the recommendation of its Data Safety Monitoring Board that the blood pressure arm of the trial should be stopped, due to far better results for those patients on the new treatment.
The newer treatment strategy using the calcium channel blocker, amlodipine, and the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, perindopril was compared with the older treatment strategy based on the beta-blocker, atenolol and the thiazide diuretic, bendroflumethiazide.