COMBINATION TREATMENT IN HYPERTENSION - THE VERATRAN STUDY

In the past few years, the combination of two antihypertensive drugs h as become a popular approach to hypertension treatment, because this p rocedure allows one to obtain satisfactory blood pressure control when monotherapy is partially ineffective and also to improve a patient's adherence to the therapeutic regimen, thereby enhancing the tolerance/ effectiveness ratio of the treatment. This paper will briefly review t he theoretical background and the requirements for an effective combin ation treatment. It will also discuss the results of the VeraTran Stud y, a multicenter study performed according to a double-blind parallel group design and aimed at assessing the antihypertensive efficacy of t he fixed combination verapamil slow release (SR) and trandolapril, adm inistered for 8 weeks, on clinic and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure. T he results of the study demonstrate that the fixed combination of a ca lcium antagonist and an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor allows one to obtain an effective and balanced blood pressure control throughout the 24 h. (C) 1997 American Journal of Hypertension, Ltd.