Diuretics Measure Up to Newer BP Drugs

By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: November 19, 2009 Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner ORLANDO -- Over the long term, diuretics fight hypertension as well as newer, more expensive blood pressure medications, researchers said here. A 10-year analysis of the ALLHAT study confirmed continued lack of superiority of calcium channel blockers and ACE inhibitors over thiazide-type diuretics, William Cushman, MD, of the VA Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn., and colleagues found. Any differences between groups for mortality and major cardiovascular and renal outcomes initially seen in the main five-year analysis were lost by 10 years./.../