Newer Blood Pressure Drug Better for Some Heart Patients, Diabetics

From the Washington Post:
A new study offers a possible alternative to heart patients and diabetics who need to keep their blood pressure under control but who cannot tolerate the standard treatment of ACE inhibitors.

Reporting at the European Society of Cardiology in Munich on Sunday, Canadian researchers said they found that the angiogenesis-receptor blocker (ARB) known as telmisartan worked well for the 20 percent of patients with vascular disease and high-risk diabetes who can't take ACE inhibitors. The study was released in the Aug. 31 online issue of The Lancet to coincide with the meeting presentation.

In the randomized, controlled trial, almost 6,000 patients with vascular disease or high-risk diabetes took either telmisartan or a placebo, and were followed for almost five years. Rates of death, heart attack, stroke or hospitalization for heart failure were tracked as primary outcome measures during the study period.
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Mean blood pressure was lower in the telmisartan group by 4.0/2.2 mm/Hg, and there was a relative risk reduction of 13.3 percent for those taking telmisartan. Fewer patients on the medication wound up in the hospital for cardiovascular problems (30.3 percent), compared to those on placebo (33 percent). ...more

ACE Inhibitor as Effective as More Expensive Blood Pressure Drug

From U.S. News and World Report:
Treatment with an ACE inhibitor drug was as effective in reducing deaths, heart attacks and stroke in a high-risk group of patients as a newer and more expensive angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) drug, a large international study has found.

The study of more than 17,000 people with coronary artery disease or diabetes found no major differences between those treated with the widely used ACE inhibitor ramipril (Altace) and those given the ARB telmisartan (Micardis).

"This is the first study in such a population that shows ACE inhibitors are as effective as ARBs," said study leader Dr. Salim Yusuf, a professor of medicine at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. ...more