Elderly hypertensive patients with cardiovascular disease may benefit from combination antihypertensive therapy

Adding a second antihypertensive medication appears to be more beneficial than increasing the dose of a single antihypertensive in reducing all-cause mortality cardiovascular outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). This was the main finding of a recent randomized trial that sought to determine the efficacy of high-dose angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) therapy vs the addition of a calcium channel blocker (CCB) to a standard dose ARB in patients with CVD or type 2 diabetes.

In India, CVD has been cited to be the leading cause of death in both urban and rural areas, and its incidence is...