Study characteristic	First author/publication yeara
	Bing 1981	Zacharias 1981	Milia 2006
Population d	Hospital (hypertension clinic)	No information	Cerebrovascular clinic
Inclusion criteria	Mild essential hypertension (defined as diastolic BP ≥95 mmHg)	Patients treated with atenolol 100 mg day–1 or 200 mg day–1 as their sole antihypertensive therapy for at least 8 weeks	Ambulant patients with first‐ever minor hemispheric ischaemic stroke or transient ischaemic attack with or without hypertension status
Exclusion criteria	Clinical gout, abnormal renal function (judged by blood urea and serum creatinine)	Cardiac, renal or hepatic failure, known sensitivity to thiazide diuretics or pregnant	Significant poststroke disability (Barthel score <70), comorbidity or contraindication to antihypertensive treatment; pre‐existing moderate to severe renal impairment (serum creatinine >200 mmol l–1) or with ≥50% stenosis of either carotid artery, BP >180/100 mmHg
Definition of hypertension	Mild essential hypertension (DBP ≥95 mmHg)	Hypertension not adequately controlled on atenolol alone	No information
How BP was measured	Auscultatory method; supine and upright position	Hawksley random zero sphygmomanometer; supine and upright position	Critikon Dinamap equipment (mean of three measurements); supine position
Sponsorship	Servier Laboratories	No information	No information
Follow‐up	16 weeks on single drug, followed by 16 weeks of combined therapy (indapamide + bendroflumethiazide)	12 weeks	28 days
Age (years)	32–64	No information	68.8 ± 10.6
Sex N (%) females	10 (50)	9 (53)	13 (50)
Indapamide	2.5 mg daily	2.5 mg + placebo–bendroflumethiazide 5 mg	2.5 mg daily
Bendroflumethiazide	5.0 mg daily	5 mg + placebo–indapamide 2.5 mg	2.5 mg daily
Study size	20	17	26
Indapamide	10	No information	13
Bendroflumethiazide	10	No information	13

BP, blood pressure; DBP, diastolic BP

^a All studies were conducted in the UK