FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 1998
Contact: Ellen Beth Levitt; [email protected]
Ira Allen; [email protected]
Barbara Crawford; [email protected]
410-328-8919
University of Maryland researcher to compare drug therapies in treatment of high blood pressure among African-Americans
A kidney specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center is leading a nationwide clinical trial to determine which of two drugs might better improve blood flow to the kidney and do a better job of reducing high blood pressure in African-Americans.
Matthew R.Weir, M.D., professor of medicine and head of the Division of Nephrology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, says the study may show whether the drug eprosartan is more effective than enalapril at reducing hypertension in blacks by comparing the effects on patients who take the medications while on both a normal diet and a higher salt diet.
Weir will announce details of the study at the 13th Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference on Hypertension in Blacks July 12-15 in Charleston, S.C.
ìHypertension is a very difficult clinical problem,î says Weir. ìIndividuals respond differently to different medications, and we suspect it has to do with how well a patient can handle salt.î
For any given level of salt, African-Americans have a greater blood pressure increase
than do whites, and the increase is caused, in part, by constriction of blood vessels in the kidney.
ìOur hypothesis is that by improving blood supply we can help the kidney excrete salt and water,î Weir explains. ìWe think that a class of drug called angiotensin receptor blockers may work better than the ACE inhibitors often prescribed now.î
Weir is the principal investigator of the 36-site randomized trial, which will enroll 332 patients nationally.
To be eligible, patients must have blood pressure of between 145/95 and 179/109 while on a normal diet that includes some salt. Patients will be given a placebo for four or five weeks to determine a baseline blood pressure. Then, they will be given a higher salt diet and divided randomly into groups taking either the angiotensin receptor blocker eprosartan or the ACE inhibitor enalapril. Those groups will be compared with the group given a placebo.
Tips for coping with high blood pressure include: losing weight, limiting alcohol, doing aerobic exercise, limiting salt in the diet and not smoking.
The conference, which draws about 800 physicians and other health professionals, is sponsored by the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks. The nonprofit organization was founded in 1986 by a group of physicians, including Elijah Saunders, M.D., of the University of Maryland Medical Center, to respond to the problem of high blood pressure among ethnic groups and to bridge the black-white disease gap.
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