Effect of a simple therapeutic regimen on blood pressure and its variability in mild hypertension

Abstract

The effects of prolonged outpatient treatment in persons with quite mild and variable forms of hypertension have not, to our knowledge, been carefully studied by double-blind techniques. The problem nevertheless presents itself, because some patients, in an intermittently hypertensive episode, may exhibit neurological features suggestive of cerebrovascular insufficiency. Following such an event, the blood pressure may fall to normal under conditions of bed-rest, yet remain on the border line between normal and hypertensive levels on successive visits to the clinic. Since recurrence of such very high blood pressures might represent a renewed threat to the patient, it is important to know whether treatment would reduce the peak level of blood pressure or its spontaneous variability. The therapeutic regimen which we have found to cause the fewest side effects and which has the maximum antihypertensive action consists of a combination of thiazide and deserpidine (1). A slight modification of this regimen was therefore used in the treatment of patients with mild to moderate elevations of blood pressure.