Hypertension Prevention in Pre-Hypertensive Individuals
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2014-09-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The incidence of hypertension in individuals with pre-hypertension was 80% in ten years in a
study conducted in Southern Brazil. The effectiveness of non-drug interventions to prevent
hypertension is low in the long term. It may be hypothesized that a population-based drug
intervention could reduce relevantly the burden of hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
Diuretics are at least as efficacious as other blood pressure-lowering drugs, are well
tolerated, have longer duration of action and the advantage of very low cost to be used in a
population intervention. Chlorthalidone is the more efficacious agent. Its main limitation is
to induce hypokalemia in a proportion of patients, an adverse effect that can be antagonized
by a potassium-sparing diuretic, as amiloride.
A study with this objective is therefore recommendable in Brazil, in order to support a plan
of precocious intervention in individuals with pre-hypertension. Such a study was demanded
and funded by the Health and Technology Ministries in Brazil.