Clinical Trials in Hypertension

Abstract

Henry Black, ed. 606 pp. New York: Marcel Dekker; 2001. $225.00. ISBN 0-8247-02700 Large, randomized clinical trials of treatments with blood pressure–lowering drug regimens have a long history that is usually dated from the Veterans Administration (since renamed the Department of Veterans Affairs) (VA) Cooperative Study on Antihypertensive Drugs, which reported results from 1967–1972. This useful book collects in one 660-page volume a good part of that history, including an attempt (in the last 5 chapters) to give a flavor of ongoing activity. In all cases, the chapters are authored by ≥1 of the clinical and/or coordinating center leaders of the particular trial and thus often give insights into the thinking behind the design, conduct, and interpretation, which is otherwise not easily available. The chapters on completed trials also collect in 1 place the information from many separate publications on the methods and results of the trials; eg, upwards of 30 study reports are cited in the Hypertension Detection and Follow-up Program (HDFP) chapter. The book’s organization is approximately chronological, which provides the reader who troubles to start at the beginning the special pleasure of (re)discovering many groundbreaking and still relevant features of …