Treatment of Hypertension in the Elderly

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 359; no. 9; pp. 971 - 974
• Main Authors: Douma, Stella, Petidis, Konstantinos, Zamboulis, Chrysanthos, Messerli, Franz H, Sulicka, Joanna, Gryglewska, Barbara, Cheah, Chan Y, Wilson, Mark D, Sutton, Graham, Beckett, Nigel S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Massachusetts Medical Society 28-08-2008
• Subjects: Age Factors; Aged, 80 and over; Antihypertensive Agents - therapeutic use; Humans; Hypertension - drug therapy; Selection Bias; Stroke - ethnology; Stroke - prevention & control
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc081224

To the Editor:
In his editorial accompanying the article by Beckett et al.
1
on the results of the Hypertension in the Very Elderly Trial (HYVET), Kostis (May 1 issue)
2
describes why he thinks the data from the study are important. However, the vast majority of patients who were enrolled in the trial (3670 of 3845) came from Eastern Europe and China; only 105 were recruited from Western countries. Since Eastern European and Chinese populations have an increased rate of death from stroke by a factor of as much as 10 (Table 1), we wonder whether the beneficial effects of antihypertensive . . .