Comparison of hydrochlorothiazide and hydrochlorothiazide plus bevantolol in hypertension.

The added hypotensive effect of bevantolol, a new cardioselective beta-blocker, was studied in 244 patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension following prior treatment with hydrochlorothiazide or placebo. After four weeks of monotherapy with 50 mg/day or 100 mg/day of hydrochlorothiazide or placebo, the mean diastolic blood pressure of the patients in these groups decreased from baseline by 8.6, 8.8, and 4.3 mmHg, respectively. During the subsequent four weeks of dual therapy with 400 mg/day of bevantolol added to the regimen, additional and uniform mean decreases of 7.5, 7.3, and 7.5 mmHg occurred, providing total mean diastolic pressure decreases from baseline of 16.1, 16.1, and 11.8 mmHg in the three groups, respectively. These diastolic pressures were significantly lower during dual therapy than during monotherapy and lower in both diuretic groups than in the placebo group during monotherapy and dual therapy (P less than 0.001). Fewer adverse reactions occurred during dual therapy than during monotherapy. The addition of bevantolol to a thiazide diuretic regimen provided safe and significantly better control of mild to moderate hypertension than did the diuretic alone.