Effectiveness of antihypertensive drugs in hypertensive patients with end stage renal failure

Hypertension has been identified as one of the causes for end stage renal failure (ESRF) and is likely to worsen kidney function. This retrospective study was carried out at a tertiary hospital in Malaysia with the objective of determining the effectiveness of combination antihypertensive drugs in hypertensive patients with ESRF admitted between 2006 and 2008. Patients with incomplete data and who were on monotherapy were excluded from this study. Although six different combinations gave significant reductions in systolic blood pressure (SBP) (13.38 +/- 9.11 mmHg, p < 0.05) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (6.03 +/- 11.39 mmHg, p < 0.05), 69.16% patients did not achieve target blood pressure (BP) (< or = 130/80 mmHg). Combination of beta blocker (BB) with calcium channel blocker (CCB) was the most commonly used. The CCB-diuretic regimen achieved highest percentage of BP control compared to others (40%). Comparison of blood pressure reduction between different combinations of antihypertensive drugs were not significant (p > 0.05) except for CCB-diuretics and BB-CCB-alpha blocker. The findings suggested better BP control with CCB-diuretic relative to other combinations used.