How quickly should we titrate antihypertensive medication? Systematic review modelling blood pressure response from trial data.

Journal article

CONTEXT: There are no evidence syntheses available to guide clinicians on when to titrate antihypertensive medication after initiation. OBJECTIVE: To model the blood pressure (BP) response after initiating antihypertensive medication. Data sources electronic databases including Medline, Embase, Cochrane Register and reference lists up to December 2009. STUDY SELECTION: Trials that initiated antihypertensive medication as single therapy in hypertensive patients who were either drug naive or had a placebo washout from previous drugs. DATA EXTRACTION: Office BP measurements at a minimum of two weekly intervals for a minimum of 4 weeks. An asymptotic approach model of BP response was assumed and non-linear mixed effects modelling used to calculate model parameters. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Eighteen trials that recruited 4168 patients met inclusion criteria. The time to reach 50% of the maximum estimated BP lowering effect was 1 week (systolic 0.91 weeks, 95% CI 0.74 to 1.10; diastolic 0.95, 0.75 to 1.15). Models incorporating drug class as a source of variability did not improve fit of the data. Incorporating the presence of a titration schedule improved model fit for both systolic and diastolic pressure. Titration increased both the predicted maximum effect and the time taken to reach 50% of the maximum (systolic 1.2 vs. 0.7 weeks; diastolic 1.4 vs. 0.7 weeks). CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of the maximum efficacy of antihypertensive agents can be made early after starting therapy. This knowledge will guide clinicians in deciding when a newly started antihypertensive agent is likely to be effective or not at controlling BP.

Authors: Lasserson, D; Buclin, T; Glasziou, P

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Heart (British Cardiac Society)
• Volume: 97
• Issue: 21
• Pages: 1771-1775
• Publication date: 2011-11-01
• DOI: 10.1136/hrt.2010.221473
• EISSN: 1468-201X
• ISSN: 1355-6037
• Language: English
• Keywords: Drug Monitoring; Drug Administration Schedule; Humans; Blood Pressure; Time Factors; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Antihypertensive Agents; Hypertension