RT Journal
A1 LaRiccia PJ, Morgan S
T1 ANtihypertensive treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease but without hypertension
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2011
FD June 1
VO 305
IS 21
SP 2170
OP 2171
DO 10.1001/jama.2011.705
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2011.705
AB 
Gordis2 and Akl et al3 point out the importance of using absolute risk reduction (ARR) information in clinical and public health decisions. In the Thompson et al study, the size of the ARRs was 7.7 per 1000 patients for stroke; 43.6 per 1000 for CHF; 27.1 per 1000 for composite CVD outcomes; and 13.7 per 1000 for all-cause mortality. We think it would be difficult for physicians to recommend that patients risk possible adverse effects and incur additional costs for such treatment, and for patients fully informed in plain language regarding likelihood of benefit, adverse effects, and costs to agree to such therapy. It is difficult to be enthusiastic about embarking on costly clinical trials to verify these results, and we believe research resources would be better directed toward interventions that show promise of providing greater ARRs than the pharmacological agents evaluated in this meta-analysis.