European therapeutic trial on systolic hypertension in the elderly

Objective

The main objective is to investigate whether antihypertensive therapy, in patients above age 60 with isolated systolic hypertension (systolic blood pressure > 160 mmHg and diastolic < 95 mmHg), will decrease morbidity and mortality and improve the quality of life.

We test the 2-sided hypothesis that the projected rate of 17 fatal and non-fatal strokers per 1000 patient-year will be altered by 40% on active treatment, with a significance of 1% and a power of 90%.

Additional Objectives

Vascular Dementia: To investigate whether antihypertensive drug therapy will decrease the development of vascular dementia in this population.

Twenty-four hour blood pressure recording: Conventional blood pressure recording is up to now the standard method for research and therapy in the cardiovascular field. This additional objective tests the hypothesis that 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure measurements add to the prediction of cardiovascular risk, already obtained with conventional readings. It provides the opportunity to evaluate the 24-hour blood pressure profile and to investigate whether a better selection is possible of patients in whom antihypertensive drug treatment is indicated or not.

Quality of Life: To investigate whether antihypertensive therapy may improve the quality of life.

Fields of science

• social sciences › sociology › demography › mortality
• medical and health sciences › basic medicine › neurology › dementia
• medical and health sciences › clinical medicine › cardiology › cardiovascular diseases

Programme(s)

• FP2-MHR 4C - Research and development coordination programme (EEC) in the field of medical and health research, 1987-1991

Topic(s)

Data not available

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

Data not available

Coordinator

UZ Gasthuisberg

Address

Hypertensie Herestraat 49
3000 Leuven
Belgium