Edward Freis, Leader in Hypertension Research, Dies

Edward D. Freis, shown in 1971, was a physician in Washington.

Edward D. Freis, 92, a Washington physician and medical researcher who received the prestigious Lasker Award for his work on treatment for hypertension, died Feb. 1 at Sibley Memorial Hospital. He had multiple organ failure.

Dr. Freis began his study in the late 1940s, when drugs to treat hypertension, or high blood pressure, were ineffective or too toxic. To treat sufferers, some doctors used snake venom, which can lower blood pressure but had unpleasant side effects.

There even was debate about whether treating hypertension was worth the trouble. A line of reasoning was that the body needed higher pressure to supply blood to the heart and brain, said Vasilios Papademetriou, a physician and colleague of Dr. Freis's at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Dr. Freis advocated lowering blood pressure to prevent heart attacks and strokes, and he was proven right. His work contributed to the growth in hypertension screening clinics that have saved countless lives, Papademetriou said.

In 1971, Dr. Freis received the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Research. The award, sometimes an indicator of who will receive the Nobel Prize, cited his demonstration of the life-saving capability of drugs to treat moderate hypertension.

Dr. Freis coordinated a VA study involving 17 hospitals, starting in 1964 what would become a five-year investigation into anti-hypertensive agents. At the end, he and colleagues showed that drug treatment for moderate hypertension cut the death rate in half and was 67 percent effective in preventing such serious complications as strokes, congestive heart failure and kidney failure.

"The prevention of stroke is less expensive than the care of those invalidated by its crippling effects," he told The Washington Post in 1971. "The prevention of cardiac or renal failure in wage-earners and heads of households is less costly than bearing the economic consequences of disablement."

Edward David Freis was born in Chicago on May 13, 1912, to immigrants from what is now Lithuania. As a young man, he aspired to be a stage actor, but after a few shows, he saw a limited future.

However, his admiration for Paul de Kruif's popular accounts of medical pioneers, including "Microbe Hunters" and "Hunger Fighters," encouraged a new interest.

After graduating from the University of Arizona and Columbia University's medical school, he served in the Army Air Forces medical corps during World War II. A postwar encounter with Chester Keefer, the medical researcher who conducted early penicillin trials, led Dr. Freis to work on anti-hypertensive drugs.

He settled in the Washington area in 1949, rose quickly at the Veterans Affairs hospital and became senior medical investigator.

In December 1954, he reported in the New England Journal of Medicine an early account of the depressive nature of some drug regimens for hypertension.

One of his earliest successes was a 1956 study of 80 hypertensive patients. He showed that the diuretic drug chlorothiazide was tolerated by patients, reduced their blood pressure and had no major side effects. It led to his award-winning study.

In later years, he continued studying hemodynamics, the study of circulation.

Dr. Freis, a Chevy Chase resident, was an officer of many medical boards and societies and in his spare time enjoyed boating and golfing. Since the 1950s, he diagnosed hypertension in himself and decided he was prone to high cholesterol levels. He began taking medication, quit smoking, ate a low-fat diet and was a gentle proselytizer for a healthy lifestyle.

His marriage to Willa Hussey Freis ended in divorce.

Survivors include his companion of 30 years, Mary Rose Curtis of Glen Echo; three children from his marriage, Richard Freis of Jackson, Miss., Susan Freis Falknor of Bluemont, Va., and Martha Bramhall of Silver Spring; six grandchildren; and nine grandchildren.