Bendroflumethiazide
A long-acting thiazide diuretic used for high blood pressure and edema.
Also called bendrofluazide (former UK name).
Drug card
- Class
- Thiazide diuretic
- How it works
- Blocking salt reabsorption in the distal tubule, so more salt and water leave
- Used for
- High blood pressure
- Edema (fluid build-up)
- Known for
- Low potassium (hypokalemia)
- Raised uric acid (hyperuricemia)
- Its name
- -thiazide, -tizide means a thiazide diuretic
Study it as a flashcard, and it comes back before you forget it.
Mechanism of action
How does bendroflumethiazide work?
Bendroflumethiazide blocks sodium and chloride reabsorption in the renal tubule, raising losses of sodium, chloride, water, potassium and magnesium while reducing calcium loss; it weakly inhibits carbonic anhydrase too. Diuresis starts in about 2 hours and lasts 12 to 18 hours, and the blood pressure effect builds over 3 to 4 days.
Like other thiazide and thiazide-like diuretics: They block the sodium-chloride cotransporter in the distal convoluted tubule, so more sodium, chloride and water leave in the urine, along with potassium and magnesium, while calcium and uric acid are held back. The lasting fall in blood pressure comes mainly from lower peripheral resistance, by a mechanism that is not fully understood.
Uses
What is bendroflumethiazide used for?
- High blood pressure
- Edema (fluid build-up)
Side effects
Side effects of bendroflumethiazide
- Low potassium (hypokalemia)Known forSerious
- Raised uric acid (hyperuricemia)Known for
- Gout attacks
- Low sodium (hyponatremia)Serious
- Low magnesium (hypomagnesemia)
- Raised blood sugar (hyperglycemia)
- Raised calcium (hypercalcemia)
- Dizziness on standing (postural hypotension)
- Impotence, reversible on stopping
- PancreatitisSerious
- Blood disorders such as agranulocytosis (rare)Serious
- Choroidal effusion and angle-closure glaucoma (rare)Serious
Known for marks what an exam expects you to know it for.
Watch for
Cautions and what sets it apart
- Contraindicated in severe kidney or liver failure, Addison's disease, refractory low potassium or sodium, high calcium and symptomatic hyperuricemia.
- It raises lithium levels.
- Its low potassium makes digoxin toxicity, with arrhythmias, more likely.
- Usually avoided in pregnancy: it can lower potassium and reduce blood flow to the placenta.
Good to know: Not sold in the US, so it has no FDA label; it was formerly called bendrofluazide in the UK.
Remember it
A way to remember it
GLUC
- G
- Glucose up
- L
- Lipids up
- U
- Uric acid up
- C
- Calcium up
Think 'hyper-GLUC': thiazides raise blood glucose, lipids, uric acid and calcium, while potassium, sodium and magnesium fall.
A mnemonic widely used in teaching
Its name
-thiazide, -tizide means thiazide diuretic
Hydrochlorothiazide and bendroflumethiazide keep the older -thiazide spelling; WHO uses -tizide for newer names. Thiazide-like chlortalidone and indapamide don't carry it.
- Every drug name stem
Its class
Thiazide and thiazide-like diuretics
Other thiazide and thiazide-like diuretics with a card:
Easily mixed up with loop diuretics and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists.
Sources
Checked against
Written for biofideX in plain words, after checking these references:
- Bendroflumethiazide 2.5 mg tablets: SmPC (HPRA)
- Bendroflumethiazide (NHS)
- Bendroflumethiazide (NCI Thesaurus)
For learning pharmacology, not for treatment decisions: no doses are given, and a prescriber, pharmacist or the product's own label is the word on any one patient. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we'll correct it.
Blood pressure
Bendroflumethiazide is one of 27 drugs practiced together here: their classes, how they work, what they treat and what they're known for.
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