UP Study Findings Contribute to More Effective Treatment of Resistant Hypertension

An extraordinary advancement in the treatment of resistant arterial hypertension was brought about by an innovative study of a team from the First Internal Clinic at the UP Faculty of Medicine in Olomouc. Researchers supervised by Jan Václavík focussed on the effects of spironolactone, a drug used for decades in the treatment of heart failure.

There is currently limited data on which drug should be used in patients with resistant hypertension. “Such patients use at least three antihypertensive drugs, yet the desired values under 140/90 mmHg are impossible to achieve,” explained the main author of the study, Jan Václavík.

In order to verify its effectiveness, the Olomouc team conducted a randomised clinical trial, which enrolled patients who were divided into two groups for eight weeks. “The group of actively treated patients was administered spironolactone, whereas the control group received only a placebo. It was shown that spironolactone is an effective drug and its adverse effects are minimal,” said Václavík.

The UP Faculty of Medicine experts were the first to conduct such a randomised controlled trial with spironolactone, and their findings have been recommended by experts. “This has a significant impact on common treatment – this drug is now prescribed to patients more often. Our findings have been confirmed in 2015 by another study in the United Kingdom,” added Václavík.

There are approximately 316,000 people suffering with resistant hypertension in the Czech Republic; the numbers globally are estimated at hundreds of millions. “If these patients used spironolactone, it could be expected that achieving better values of blood pressure would protect them against the development of myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accidents, and untimely death,” Václavík pointed out.

The contribution of the Olomouc study for clinical practice was confirmed by one of the Discovery Awards, granted by the Novartis company to researchers under 40 years of age who have contributed to a substantial advancement in the field of medical and pharmaceutical research.

---