A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled comparison of the metabolic effects of low-dose hydrochlorothiazide and indapamide

To compare the metabolic effects of indapamide (I) and hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) at equivalent hypotensive doses, 11 hypertensive patients (5 male, 8 black, aged 56 +/- 8 yr--mean +/- SEM) having serum uric acid concentrations greater than 8.0 mg/dL while receiving previous therapy with thiazides, received 28-day courses of placebo, indapamide (2.5 mg/d), and HCTZ (25 mg/d) in randomized, double-blind, double-crossover design. Supine and standing blood pressures, weight, pulse rates and sera were obtained after each 28 day period. Blood pressures and weights were lowered (P less than .001 and 0.01, respectively) equally by the diuretics: supine blood pressures fell from 168 +/- 4/104 +/- 2 (placebo) to 153 +/- 4/93 +/- 2 (HCTZ) and 155 +/- 4/94 +/- 2 mm Hg (I); standing blood pressures (after 2 minutes upright) also decreased: 171 +/- 5/104 +/- 2 (placebo) to 156 +/- 5/93 +/- 2 (HCTZ) and 157 +/- 4/94 +/- 2 mm Hg (I). There was a statistically significant difference (P less than .05) across treatments by analysis of variance in both uric acid and potassium concentrations: serum urate (in mg/dL) was lowest with placebo (7.1 +/- 0.3), and rose to 8.3 +/- 0.2 with HCTZ (P less than .001 compared with placebo by paired t test), and 8.1 +/- 0.2 with I (P less than .005 vs. placebo). The urate concentration with I was significantly lower than that with HCTZ (P less than .02), but the magnitude of the difference was small (0.2 mg/dL).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)