MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Gupta Pankaj Consultant Metabolic Physician/Chemical Pathologist Dr. Patel Prashanth - Consultant Metabolic Physician/Chemical Pathologist Department of Metabolic Medicine and Chemical Pathology University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, UK   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Non-adherence or patients not taking their medications as prescribed is known since the time of Hippocrates. It is the key reason why blood pressure is well controlled in only around 50% of patients with hypertension, despite the availability of good medicines. Non-adherence leads to poorer cardiovascular outcomes and is thought to cost $100 billion to the US health economy. A crucial reason for the lack of progress in improving adherence has been the previous lack of a clinically useful objective measure. We and others have developed a robust and reliable biochemical screening method to assess for non- adherence to antihypertensive medications in urine or blood using a technique called liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.  We have previously reported a single centre study that demonstrated high rates of non-adherence in patients attending a hypertension clinic. Since, then we have set up a National Centre for Adherence Testing (NCAT, [email protected]) in the Department of Metabolic Medicine and Chemical Pathology, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) and receive samples from around 25 hypertension clinics across UK. This study analysed data from~1400 patients consisting of samples received in UHL and also from a cohort of patients in the Czech Republic. (more…)