A study reveals that a combination of new hypertension drugs and a common statin used to lower cholesterol cuts the chances of a heart attack or stroke by almost two thirds.

The results of the study, announced yesterday at a meeting for heart specialists in Sweden, could change the way that high blood pressure is treated for thousands of people.

The researchers studied 19,000 men and women aged between 40 and 79, with high blood pressure at moderate risk of strokes and heart attacks from Britain, Scandinavia, Ireland and Finland.

Compared with using older treatments, the study result found that newer hypertension drugs alone reduced the risks of strokes by 25 per cent; coronaries by 15 per cent; cardiovascular deaths by 25 per cent and new cases of diabetes by 30 per cent compared with standard treatment.

British doctors working on the study told The Times that the research had important implications for hypertension treatment.

About half of the 18 million Britons with high blood pressure are aware of the condition and receive medication. Of those, only about 500,000 are already on the particular drug combination that has now been shown to be so successful.

"High blood pressure is a major health problem," said Prof Peter Sever, of the international centre for circulatory health, Imperial College London, and co-chairman of the study's steering committee.

"The Ascot study used a simple and effective combination of treatments. The results demonstrated both a control of blood pressure and a reduction in the risk of strokes, heart attacks and other related diseases such as diabetes.

"This is very important news for patients and their physicians."

The five-year trial was halted in December when early results proved so promising that it was no longer fair to keep one group of patients on the older drugs for comparison, without giving them the opportunity to change.

While the newer drugs are slightly more expensive than standard treatments, specialists do not believe that the additional costs would be considerable, especially when the reduced cost of treating heart and stroke patients is taken into account.

Source: Xinhua/agencies