When a clinical trial is ended before the intended termination date, it usually means bad news. Most people might remember the study on Hormone Replacement Therapy which was ended suddenly due to increased amount of deaths which were occurring.
Therefore, it is always a pleasant surprise when a trial ends suddenly due to good news. That is exactly what happened with a study analyzing lowering blood pressure in elderly men. Men, all over 80 years old, were recruited internationally. Systolic blood pressure was between 140 to 190 and/or Diastolic was between 90 to 109. Medications administered were a low-dose diuretic (indapamide 1.5 mg sustained release) and an additional ACE inhibitor (perindopril 2 mg or 4 mg a day) if required.
Outcomes were conclusive: total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, cardiac mortality, stroke mortality, and skeletal fracture were all significantly reduced.
One of the key researchers noted that ‘hopefully, these outcomes convert the few remaining knuckleheads, that believe high blood pressure is necessary to push the blood through schlerotic, aging arteries”.
Hopefully, aggressive treatment for high blood pressure will be implemented with the elderly as well as the rest of the population. High blood pressure remains the ‘silent killer’ in all human beings, not solely young ones. It is time that age discrimination ends with this very serious and deadly condition.
Imperial College, London. Trial stops after stroke and mortality significantly reduced by blood-pressure-lowering treatment for those aged 80 and over
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