[Physical activity level and home blood pressure measurement: Pilot study "Acti-HTA"]. / Niveau d'activité physique et contrôle ambulatoire de l'hypertension artérielle. Résultats de l'étude pilote « Acti-HTA ¼.

While physical activity (PA) is recommended for high blood pressure management, the level of PA practice of hypertensive patients remains unclear. We aimed to assess the association between the level of both PA and blood pressure of individuals consulting in 9 hypertension specialist centres. Eighty-five hypertensive patients were included (59 ± 14 years, 61% men, 12% smokers, 29% with diabetes). Following their consultation, they performed home blood pressure measurement (HBPM) over 7 days (2 in the morning+2 in the evening), they wrote in a dedicated form their daily activities to estimate the additional caloric expenditure using Acti-MET device (built from International physical Activity Questionnaire [IPAQ]). Thus, patients completed a self-administered questionnaire "score of Dijon" (distinguishing active subjects with a score>20/30, from sedentary<10/30). Subjects with normal HBPM value (<135/85 mm Hg) (55% of them) compared to those with high HBPM were older, had a non-significant trend towards higher weekly caloric expenditure (4959 ± 5045 kcal/week vs. 4048 ± 4199 kcal/week, P=0.3755) and score of Dijon (19.44 ± 5.81 vs. 18.00 ± 4.32, P=0.2094) with a higher proportion of "active" subjects (48.9% vs. 34.2%, P=0.1773). In conclusion, our results demonstrate a "tendency" to a higher level of reported PA for subjects whose hypertension was controlled. This encourages us to continue with a study that would include more subjects, which would assess PA level using an objective method such as wearing an accelerometer sensor.

[Prevalence of sleep apnea in men with metabolic syndrome and controlled hypertension]. / Prévalence et déterminants du syndrome d'apnée du sommeil chez des hommes ayant un syndrome métabolique et une hypertension artérielle contrôlée.

BACKGROUND: Abdominal obesity and high blood pressure (HBP) are known to be associated with sleep apnea syndrome (SAS). Resistant hypertension commonly leads physicians to prescribe a sleep record because the prevalence of SAS is high in patients with resistant hypertension. Data on the prevalence of SAS in patients with treated and controlled hypertension are lacking. Moreover, while the metabolic syndrome (MS) and insulin resistance frequently occur in association with SAS, few studies have evaluated the prevalence of SAS in patients with MS. Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) is often proposed to identify patients at high risk for sleep disorders and for which a sleep record should be prescribed. The reliability of this test to identify SAS has not been studied in patients with MS. OBJECTIVES: (i) To assess the prevalence of SAS in men with MS, (ii) to study the relationship between controlled hypertension and SAS in patients with MS, (iii) to assess the reliability of the ESS to diagnose SAS in patients with MS. METHODS: Among 135 men hospitalized for MS, the 125 who had no history of SAS were systematically evaluated by a nocturnal polygraphy was systematically performed in the 125 men without known SAS at the admission. An excessive daytime sleepiness was assessed by the ESS. Results of analyses in patients with controlled HBP (<130/85 mmHg with antihypertensive drug(s), n=41) were compared with those in patients with normotension (<130/85 mmHg without treatment, n=32). RESULTS: The prevalence of SAS (apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) >or=15/h) in men with MS was 44% in the whole population, 28.1% in the subgroup of patients with normotension and 61.0% in patients with treated and controlled HBP. A severe SAS (AHI >or=30/h) was respectively present in 6.3% and 34.1% of patients with normotension and controlled HTA (p<0.01). Compared with patients without SAS, those with SAS displayed higher blood pressure and BMI. Logistic regression analysis showed that controlled HTA was a determinant of SAS which persisted after adjustment for BMI. As suggested by the ROC curve, the ESS is not a good tool to identify patients with SAS. With a threshold of 11/24 the positive and negative values of this scale were of 0.20 and 0.47. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of SAS is high in men with MS. The ESS does not identify patients who should undergo a nocturnal record. Because a severe SAS is found in nearly one third of patients with MS and controlled HBP, we suggest that a nocturnal record should be systematically proposed to these patients irrespective of the degree of daytime sleepiness assessed by questionnaires.

[Diabetes prevention in hypertensive patients]. / Prevention du diabète chez l'hypertendu.

Hypertension and type-2 diabetes are frequently observed concomitantly in a same patient. There are possibilities to delay the onset of type-2 diabetes, especially in patients already managed for hypertension. Trials on renin-angiotensin blockers show that compared to other drug therapies, there is a lower incidence of diabetes in patients treated by an ACE-inhibitor or an Angiotensin 11 antagonist and the benefit can be estimated at 22% (relative risk at 0.78 with a confidence interval from 0.74 to 0.83). A higher risk of occurrence of type-2 diabetes is particularly noted in those under beta-blocking therapy combined to diuretics. In ALLHAT, the comparison of a thiazide diuretic, an ACE-inhibitor and a calcium antagonist showed that the incidence of new cases of diabetes was the highest in the diuretic group and the lowest in the ACE-inhibitor group. Hypertensive patients under calcium antagonists presented an incidence in between the two other groups. According to a recent hypothesis, the insulin-resistance decrease as a consequence of renin-angiotensin system blocking is related to the recruitment of pre-adipocytes. The NAVIGATOR and ONTARGET trials will probably confirm the preliminary results obtained in this topic. Their results are expected within the 2 next years.

[Home blood pressure monitoring in addition to office blood pressure determination is useful in patients with systolic hypertension before their inclusion into a drug trial]. / L'automesure tensionnelle en complément de la mesure de consultation est utile pour l'inclusion dans un essai clinique de sujets avec une HTA systolique.

OBJECTIVE: In patients with uncontrolled systolic hypertension, to estimate the value of home blood pressure monitoring in addition to office blood pressure for inclusion in a trial. METHODS: 80 patients with systolic hypertension, defined as SBP > or =140 mmHg and pulse pressure > or =60 mmHg, were treated for 4 weeks with a thiazide diuretic at usual dose (25 mg HCTZ or 1.5 mg indapamide or methyclothiazide 5 mg). Blood pressure was measured using an automatic monitor (Omron M6) at office and at home in the 3 days prior the visit. Subjects with an uncontrolled hypertension were included in the second part of the trial only if there fulfilled inclusion criteria: office SBP > or =140 mmHg and home SBP > or =135 mmHg (mean of 18 measurements obtained on 3 consecutive days) and office pulse pressure > or =60 mmHg. RESULTS: After 4 weeks with diuretic treatment, 62% of patients fulfilled 3 criteria and were included in the second part of the trial. It was observed 76% of patients with office SBP > or =140 mmHg, 72% with office pulse pressure > or =60 mmHg and 70% with both office SBP and PP criteria. However, only 67% of patients had home SBP > or =135 mmHg. Discrepancy between office and home SBP was observed and subjects with a white coat hypertension was noticed in 14% and masked hypertension in 5%. CONCLUSION: If patients with systolic hypertension have to be included into a drug trial because there are uncontrolled, home blood pressure monitoring in addition to office blood pressure is a very useful criteria for inclusion because misclassifications due to white coat or masked hypertension is frequent in these patients.

[Activity and safety of fenspiride in bronchial hyperexudation (author's transl)]. / Efficacité-tolérance du fenspiride dans les hyper-exsudations bronchiques.

This clinical trial of fenspiride (injectable and sustained-release 80 mg tablet) was carried out on patients selected because their bronchopathy was of a hypersecretory type. Interesting results were observed in 20 out of 37 cases, but they were often delayed. This group of patients included a high proportion of patients with major hypersecretion; the efficacy of fenspiride is often evident, (in 8 out of 11 cases) but it is unpredictable individually. It can be concluded from this trial that a long term treatment with fenspiride, well tolerated, can usefully be tried in patients with predominant signs of bronchial hyperexudation.