A Study on Molecular Genetics of Drug Responsiveness in Essential Hypertension
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2004-04-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Blood pressure variation and the risk of essential hypertension have an important genetic
component. In most cases susceptibility to essential hypertension is likely determined by the
action of more than one gene.
The identification of genes causing susceptibility to hypertension is important, since it
would give new tools for the diagnosis and enable better etiological classification and
specific treatment of the disease.
The innovation of this study is to use the response to antihypertensive therapy as an
intermediate phenotype.
In the study, each subject uses one of four antihypertensive drugs, each as a monotherapy in
a rotational fashion, for 28 days in a randomized order. The antihypertensive drugs to be
tested include a thiazide diuretic, a beta-adrenergic antagonist, an angiotensin-II receptor
antagonist and a calcium channel blocker. The drugs that are selected for the study are
"typical" representatives of their groups and long-acting, and the dosages are sufficient but
well tolerable.