Sex differences in response to angiotensin II receptor blocker-based therapy in elderly, high-risk, hypertensive Japanese patients: a subanalysis of the OSCAR study

Por: Kunihiko Matsui, Shokei Kim-Mitsuyama, Hisao Ogawa, Tomio Jinnouchi, Hideaki Jinnouchi y Kikuo Arakawa for the OlmeSartan Calcium Antagonists Randomized (OSCAR) Study Group.  Hypertension Research (2014) 37, 526–532.

Essential hypertension is a common comorbid condition and risk factor for cardiovascular events; in addition to lifestyle modification, drug therapy is the main treatment strategy. Although there are indications for specific classes of antihypertensive drugs for particular patients, such as diuretics for hypertensive African Americans,1 there is no uniform agreement on the type of drug(s) that should be used when physicians choose an antihypertensive drug for newly diagnosed patients without specific indications for those drugs.  Recently, many evidence-based clinical practice guidelines from various clinical fields have been published to improve the quality of patient care.

Antihypertensive drug classes have different effects on short-term blood pressure variability in essential hypertension

Por: Natacha Levi-Marpillat, Isabelle Macquin-Mavier, Anne-Isabelle Tropeano, Gianfranco Parati y Patrick Maison.  Hypertension Research (2014) 37, 585–590.

Increased blood pressure variability (BPV) contributes to end-organ damage, cardiovascular events and mortality associated with hypertension. In a cohort of 2780 hypertensive patients treated by either calcium channel blockers (CCBs), diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) or ß-blockers alone or in combination, we compared indices of short-term BPV according to the different treatments. Short-term BPV was calculated as the standard deviation (s.d.) of 24?h, daytime or nighttime systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP).