LONDON, August 17 (SPIS MedWire)There is a disparity between the therapeutic reduction of blood pressure and the consequent risk of myocardial infarction, with the decrease in MI rates being less than expected from the magnitude of the decrease in blood pressure levels. To investigate the role of lipid and hemostatic factors in the pathogenesis of hypertension, Marques-Vidal and multicenter colleagues assessed a sample of men aged 50 to 59 years living in France (n=7,050) and Northern Ireland (n=2,374). After adjustment for potential confounders (age, BMI, education, drug treatment for hyperlipidemia, alcohol and tobacco consumption) untreated hypertensive subjects had significantly higher levels of total cholesterol, triglyceride, apoproteins A-I and B and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) activity than normotensive subjects. Analysis of the subjects on monotherapy showed beta-blockers decreased total cholesterol and HDL parameters and ACE inhibitors decreased LDL-related parameters, while no effect was found for the other antihypertensive drugs (thiazide and other diuretics, calcium channel blockers). The results confirm that hypertensive subjects are characterised by an unfavorable lipid and hemostatic profile, and the authors comment that their findings "contribute to the general recognition of the need to screen hypertensive patients for lipid disturbances." The results also indicate that antihypertensive treatment with beta-blockers is associated with lower levels of HDL-related parameters, whereas treatment with ACE inhibitors appears to exert a small beneficial effect on total cholesterol and LDL-related parameters.