The Captopril Prevention Project: a prospective intervention trial of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition in the treatment of hypertension. The CAPPP Group.
The Captopril Prevention Project (CAPPP) is a prospective, randomized, multi-centre intervention trial designed to investigate whether antihypertensive treatment with the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor captopril may reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity more than a therapeutic regimen which does not include an ACE inhibitor. Secondary objectives are to compare total mortality, the development or deterioration of ischaemic heart disease, left ventricular failure, atrial fibrillation, diabetes mellitus and possible differences in renal function in the two groups. Male and female patients with essential hypertension, aged 25-66 years, will be randomly allocated to antihypertensive treatment which will comprise either the use of the ACE inhibitor captopril or will exclude all types of ACE inhibitors. Some 275 hypertension centres and health care centres in Sweden and Finland will take part in this multi-centre trial. A total of 7000 patients will be recruited and studied for an average period of 5 years, the assumption being that a 20% difference in cardiovascular mortality between the two groups can be detected with a power of 80% at the 5% significance level (two-sided test).