The authors investigated in a retrospective study in a group of diabetics changes in the pharmacotherapy of hypertension. In 1989-1996 2308 diabetics had spa treatment in the Military Balneological Institute in Karlovy Vary and 1058 of these patients had hypertension (45.8%). The patients were from all parts of the Czech Republic and before 1993 from the whole Czechoslovak Federal Republic. The authors investigated the pharmacotherapy of hypertension and focused attention on four basic groups of antihypertensive drugs (beta-blockers, diuretics, Ca channel blockers and ACE inhibitors). They recorded a marked drop of the number of patients taking diuretics (from 62% to 24%), and a slight decline in the group taking beta-blockers). They recorded an increase in Ca channel blockers (from 7% to 54%) and in recent years of ACE inhibitors (from practically zero to 24%). They draw attention to the dominant ratio of some drugs in selected groups of antihypertensives and discuss whether they are suitable for the treatment of hypertension in patients with diabetes mellitus. The number of patients without pharmacotherapy of hypertension declined but was not statistically significant.

Keywords: Antihypertensive Agents /therapeutic use/; Diabetes Complications; Drug Utilization /trends/; Humans; Hypertension /complications/; Middle Aged; Retrospective Studies