Table 1.

Distribution of International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) codes among patients with ≥ 1 code (N = 57,041)

ICPC codes	Disease entity	Reasons for exclusion	number	%
K87	Complicated hypertension	The presence of unknown complications may favor or preclude prescription of a particular drug class	3310	5.8%
T90	Diabetes Mellitus	Favors the choice of ACEIs	15560	27.3%
T901	Impaired glucose tolerance		353	0.6%
T92	Gout	Contraindication of thiazide diuretics	635	1.1%
T93	Lipid disorders	Favor the exclusion of thiazide diuretics and β-blockers	1186	2.1%
K90	Stroke/cerebrovascular accident	Favor the choice of β-blockers	1920	3.4%
K91	Cerebrovascular disease		130	0.2%
K74	Ischemic Heart Disease with angina		348	0.6%
K76	Ischemic Heart Disease without angina		1099	1.9%
K75	Acute Myocardial Infarction		213	0.4%
K77	Heart Failure	Favor the choice of ACEIs	794	1.4%
K84	Heart Disease, other	Favor the choice of β-blockers or ACEIs	168	0.3%
K99	Cardiovascular disease, other		113	0.2%
R79	Chronic Bronchitis	Contraindication of β-blockers	436	0.8%
R95	Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease		2199	3.9%
R96	Asthma		1083	1.9%
U14	Kidney symptoms/complaints	Either favor or a contraindication of ACEIs	312	0.5%
U88	Glomerulonephritis/nephrosis		36	0.1%
Y85	Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy	Favor the prescription of α-blockers	2917	5.1%
U78	Benign Neoplasm Urinary Tract		30	0.1%
Y79	Benign/unspecified neoplasm, male genital		1	0.0%

(ACEIs: Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors. There were a total of 46,859 patients (82.1%) Apart from K86 these conditions are influencing factors for antihypertensive drug prescription and were named "exclusion codes"