MEDICAL STUDY Blood pressure drug linked to higher heart disease deaths

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
MILWAUKEE -- Patients who took a popular class of blood pressure drug had a substantially higher cardiovascular disease death rate than those taking other hypertension drugs, according to a study published today.
The disconcerting finding, which comes from a large ongoing study of women, including hundreds studied at the Medical College of Wisconsin, most likely applies to men as well, according researchers.
However, the study highlights a dilemma that likely will face many doctors and patients: Because the finding doesn't come from a rigorous clinical trial, but rather an observational study, should it change the way blood pressure drugs are prescribed?
"It may the best [study] we have for a long time," said Daniel Jones, dean of the school of medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and a spokesman for the American Heart Association. "But it won't be possible to get a consistent opinion on what it means."
At stake is how to treat high blood pressure, a silent killer that affects about one in four adults in America.
Types of drugs
At least four types of drugs are commonly used to treat high blood pressure. Diuretics, old standbys that are cheap and effective, are recommended as a first-line treatment. But many patients require a second drug to get the blood pressure under control.
It is the combination therapies that were the primary focus of the today's study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study involved nearly 16,000 women with high blood pressure, including about 800 at the Medical College of Wisconsin, but who did not have known heart disease. The study is part of the ongoing Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, which has followed 93,676 women, 50 to 79, for nearly six years.
It found that women treated with a diuretic plus a calcium channel blocker had an 85 percent greater chance of dying of cardiovascular disease than those who took a diuretic plus a beta blocker.