Prospectively designed overviews of recent trials comparing antihypertensive regimens based on different drug classes.

Randomized trials have provided clear evidence of the beneficial effects of many different blood pressure-lowering regimens compared with placebo. The comparative effects of antihypertensive regimens based on different drug classes are less well established. The Blood Pressure Lowering Treatment Trialists' Collaboration conducted a series of prospectively designed overviews of randomized trials that compared the effects of different drug classes on major cause-specific outcomes. These overviews found no differences between the effects of regimens based on angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and those based on diuretics or b-blockers. There was limited evidence of small differences between regimens based on calcium antagonists and those based on diuretics or beta-blockers. The overviews of regimens based on calcium antagonists compared with those based on angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors recorded too few events to provide reliable findings. Over the next few years, the findings of ongoing trials and future cycles of overview analyses conducted by the Collaboration should substantially add to these data.