Diuretics (water pills) work better than newer and more costly medicines in the treatment of high blood pressure and prevention of some forms of heart disease in people with type 2 diabetes, according to results from the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT).
ALLHAT, the largest hypertension clinical trial ever conducted, was led in part by Tulane University physician and epidemiologist Paul K. Whelton, senior vice president for health sciences and lead author for the current report published in the June 27th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Almost three out of every four persons with type 2 diabetes has hypertension, putting them at substantial risk for cardiovascular disease," Whelton says.
An important question in patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension has been whether it makes a difference which medicine is used for initial therapy of high blood pressure.
"ALLHAT is the largest study to address this question, comparing four different classes of antihypertensive medication: diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme [ACE] inhibitors, calcium channel blockers and alpha receptor blockers," Whelton says.
In an earlier publication (Journal of the American Medical Association, December 2002), the ALLHAT investigators reported that diuretics were superior in preventing adverse cardiovascular disease outcomes compared with other first-step antihypertensive medications. The current report indicates that this is true not only in hypertensive patients with a normal blood sugar, but in those with diabetes, or an impaired fasting glucose (pre-diabetes).
The Archives publication was based on long-term clinical trial experience in 31,512 men and women who were all 55 years old or older with stage 1 or stage 2 hypertension and at least one additional risk factor for coronary heart disease. Study participants were assigned to initial treatment with either a calcium channel blocker (amlodipine), an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril) or a diuretic (chlorthalidone). Compared with the ACE inhibitor and the calcium channel blocker, the diuretic was: