Monitoring antihypertensive drug concentrations to determine nonadherence in hypertensive patients with or without a kidney transplant

BACKGROUND: Nonadherence to antihypertensive drugs (AHDs) is a major contributor to pseudo-resistant hypertension. The primary objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of nonadherence to AHDs among patients visiting the nephrology and vascular outpatient clinics. METHODS: Patients were eligible to participate in this prospective observational study if they used at least two AHDs that could be measured with a validated UHPLC-MS/MS method and had an office blood pressure at least 140 and/or at least 90 mmHg. For resistant hypertension, included patients had to use at least three AHDs including a diuretic or four AHDs. Adherence was assessed by measuring drug concentrations in blood. The complete absence of drug in blood was defined as nonadherence. A posthoc analysis was performed to determine the influence of a having a kidney transplant on the adherence rates. RESULTS: One hundred and forty-two patients were included of whom 66 patients fulfilled the definition of resistant hypertension. The overall adherence rate to AHDs was 78.2% (n = 111 patients), with the highest adherence rate for irbesartan (100%, n = 9) and lowest adherence rate for bumetanide (n = 69%, n = 13). In further analysis, only kidney transplantation could be identified as an important factor for adherence (adjusted odds ratio = 3.35; 95% confidence interval 1.23–9.09). A posthoc analysis showed that patients with a kidney transplant were more likely to be adherent to AHDs (non-KT cohort 64.0% vs. KT-cohort 85.7%, χ(2)(2) = 10.34, P = 0.006). CONCLUSION: The adherence rate to AHDs in hypertensive patients was high (78.2%) and even higher after a kidney transplant (85.7%). Furthermore, patients after kidney transplant had a lower risk of being nonadherent to AHDs.