Class of Antihypertensive Drugs, Blood Pressure Status, and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Hypertensive Patients: A Case-Control Study in Japan

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of different classes of antihypertensives on the risk of cardiovascular events in a case-control study of hypertensive patients. The subjects consisted of 171 hypertensive patients who had experienced a cardiovascular event and 537 randomly selected hypertensive controls who were matched to the cases by gender, age, and hospital/clinic. Both cases and controls had been under antihypertensive medication for at least 6 months before the onset of the cardiovascular event (cases) or before the enrollment (controls). A total of 134 physicians across the nation recruited cases and controls, and reported details of the prescription of antihypertensives and clinical and behavioral variables of their patients. Although there was no measurable difference in the risk of cardiovascular events according to the class of antihypertensives, statistically significant increases in the risk of cardiovascular events were observed for non-use of calcium antagonists among patients with angina pectoris and for non-use of the renin-angiotensin system inhibitor (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin II receptor blockers combined) among patients with diabetes mellitus. Higher levels of blood pressure were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. The findings suggest that appropriate control of blood pressure is more important in the treatment of hypertension than the choice of antihypertensives.