Inpharma 1463 - 13 Nov 2004

Atenolol doubtful choice fortreatment of hypertension

"We have doubts about the suitability of atenolol as afirst-line antihypertensive drug and as a reference drug inoutcome trials of hypertension", conclude researchersfrom Sweden.

They conducted a meta-analysis of eight randomised,controlled trials that assessed the effects of atenolol onoutcomes in patients with primary hypertension.

There were no significant differences betweenatenolol and either placebo or no treatment (four trials)with regard to all-cause mortality, cardiovascularmortality or myocardial infarction; there was a trendtowards a beneficial effect of atenolol on the incidenceof stroke (relative risk of 0.85 [95% CI 0.72, 1.01]).When compared with other antihypertensives (fivetrials), treatment with atenolol was associated withsignificantly higher incidences of all-cause mortality(relative risk of 1.13) and stoke (1.3), and anonsignificantly higher incidence of cardiovascularmortality (1.16).Carlberg B, et al. Atenolol in hypertension: is it a wise choice? Lancet 364:1684-1689, No. 9446, 6-12 Nov 2004 800996010

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Inpharma 13 Nov 2004 No. 14631173-8324/10/1463-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved