An ambulatory blood pressure monitoring study of the comparative antihypertensive efficacy of two angiotensin II receptor antagonists, irbesartan and valsartan.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Antihypertensive Agents in the context of low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

Secondary objectives included comparing the mean changes from baseline in systolic ABP at trough; 24-h ABP; morning and night-time ABP; self-measured systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP); and office-measured SBP and DBP at trough.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 426 subjects were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Ambulatory blood pressure measurements were obtained at baseline and at week 8.

Office-measured seated DBP and SBP measurements were obtained at trough, at baseline, and at week 8.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Antihypertensive Agents study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

As a double-blind Antihypertensive Agents study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

Some subjects received a placebo instead of Antihypertensive Agents, giving a reference point.

What Was Measured

Secondary objectives included comparing the mean changes from baseline in systolic ABP at trough; 24-h ABP; morning and night-time ABP; self-measured systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP); and office-measured SBP and DBP at trough.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antihypertensive Agents, Biphenyl Compounds, Blood Pressure, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory, Hypertension, Irbesartan and Tetrazoles.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Antihypertensive Agents in 426 subjects in people with low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2002 (Blood pressure monitoring), a journal based in England.

More context: Low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension research.