Heart Disease In The News

In hypertensives, diuretics may help prevent stroke
January 8, 2001      

According to a study in today's Archives of Internal Medicine, patients with high blood pressure treated with diuretics (water pills) have a sharply reduced incidence of stroke.

The study was conducted as a review of medical records and interviews of over 3000 patients with high blood pressure.  In this population, the failure to use a diuretic drug (alone or in combination with other antihypertensive drugs such as calcium blockers, beta blockers, and ACE inhibitors) was associated with a 40 - 85% increased risk of stroke, especially in patients who had no known underlying heart disease.

Diuretics are among the oldest drugs used in treating hypertension, and to a large extent have been displaced by newer drugs (mentioned above) that are often viewed as being more effective.

It should be noted that this study was not a randomized clinical study, so its results should be viewed as preliminary.  Its results will likely trigger the establishment of a randomized trial to study this possible phenomenon in more detail.

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