Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Capstone

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Committee Chair

Trey Boyd

Abstract

Introduction: Hypertension is a leading cause of heart disease and stroke worldwide. There are various medications available for effective management of hypertension. This paper aims to evaluate the efficacy of antihypertensive medications on cardiovascular events in adults with hypertension, explicitly investigating angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs).

Methods: PubMed was searched with filters using key terms “angiot*” AND “hypertens*” AND “antihyp*” and key terms "arb" AND "hyper*" AND "cardiovasc*" to identify articles underlining the efficacy of ARBs and other antihypertensives in the reduction of cardiovascular events in adults with hypertension. Four articles, chosen by their direct comparison of antihypertensive medications and cardiovascular outcomes, were selected for further review.

Results: All studies utilized a 95% confidence interval (CI). The results of the data were limited. ARBs were considered more efficacious than CCBs in reducing the recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) and persistent AF. ACEIs, BBs, ARBs, DH-CCBs, and diuretics were all efficacious in decreasing the risk of stroke by 35%, cardiovascular death by 20%, and overall cardiovascular events by 30% compared with placebos. However, further investigation is needed to determine the comparison of ARBs with other antihypertensive medications.

Discussion: ARBs have been proven efficacious in reducing blood pressure and cardiovascular events. However, the efficacy of ARBs in comparison to other antihypertensive medications has yet to be identified by further research. Further investigation is still needed to determine the difference between the efficacy of antihypertensive medication and overall cardiovascular event reduction.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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