© 2003 by BMJ Publishing Group & British Cardiac Society
EDITORIAL
Drug treatment of hypertension: implications of ALLHAT
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Bryan Williams, Clinical Sciences Building, Leicester Royal Infirmary, PO Box 65, Leicester LE2 7LX, UK;
bw17@le.ac.uk
The largest ever study of antihypertensive treatment, the ALLHAT trial, has led to some controversial conclusions about the safety and efficacy of the "newer" antihypertensive agents
Keywords: ALLHAT; diuretics; hypertension
Abbreviations: ACE, angiotensin converting enzyme; ALLHAT, antihypertensive and lipid lowering treatment to prevent heart attack trial; CCB, calcium channel blocker
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The presentation and publication of the primary results of the antihypertensive and lipid lowering treatment to prevent heart attack trial (ALLHAT) has generated much interest and opinion.1 This is because (1) ALLHAT is the largest ever study of antihypertensive therapy; (2) ALLHAT addressed the commercially sensitive issue of appropriate first line therapy for hypertension; and (3) the initial presentation of the results led to some controversial conclusions.
ALLHAT was designed to compare the effectiveness of initial antihypertensive therapy with three different classes of "newer" antihypertensive drug classes (angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, calcium channel blocker (CCB) or 
adrenergic blocker) with an older established treatment (thiazide diuretic) at reducing a primary end point of fatal coronary heart disease or non-fatal myocardial infarction. ALLHAT was a randomised, double blind controlled clinical trial conducted in 623 centres across North America. ALLHAT initially randomised 42 418 mild to moderate hypertensive patients aged 
55 years
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Ma, J., Lee, K.-V., Stafford, R. S.
(2006). Changes in Antihypertensive Prescribing During US Outpatient Visits for Uncomplicated Hypertension Between 1993 and 2004. Hypertension
48: 846-852
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Heckman, G. A
(2003). Amlodipine or lisinopril was not better than chlorthalidone in lowering CHD risk in hypertension. Evid. Based Med.
8: 168-168
[Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
