Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi, cilt.34, sa.2, ss.117-130, 2020 (ESCI)
Objective: Comorbidities are common in hypertension (HT) and determine the
management of antihypertensive therapy. We aimed to investigate drug
utilization in hypertensive patients in associaition with the presence of other
cardiovascular problems.
Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included data of patients
applied to the Turkish Heart Foundation Medical Center between January 2016-
June 2018 (n=11,085). Among all medical records (n=26,699), medications,
medical and demographic characteristics were evaluated in patients with most
common diagnosis: HT, ischemic heart disease (IHD), and dyslipidemia (DL).
Data for HT and accompanying IHD and DL were compared.
Results: 22.2% (n=5,929) of the visits had diagnosis of HT. Of the total 3,601 HT
patients, 43.7% (n=1,572) had single diagnosis and 36.7% (n=1,321) had at least
one of the two comorbidities. Acetylsalicylic acid was the most common drug in
all groups. The most common antihypertensive group was renin-angiotensin
system (RAS) blockers and the active molecules were metoprolol and
amlodipine. This was followed by “valsartan+hydrochlorothiazide” in HT alone
or HT+DL groups and by ramipril in the groups where IHD accompanied. The
use of beta-blockers was lower in patients ≥65 years compared to younger
patients (13.8% and 16.1%, respectively, p<0.05).
Conclusion: In this study, the most preferred antihypertensive group was drugs
acting on RAS, dominated by angiotensin receptor blockers and most preferred
drug was metoprolol. Contrary to their comparably deprioritization in recent
guidelines, beta-blockers seem to be widely used in this setting. It is understood
that the most commonly used drugs do not vary overall in the studied
comorbidities of HT.
Keywords: drug utilization, antihypertensive agents, ischemic heart disease,
dyslipidemia