Source: DGNews  |  Posted 8 years ago

By Peggy Peck

VIENNA, AUSTRIA -- September 3, 2003 -- Candesartan was associated with a 12% reduction in risk of cardiovascular death and a 16% relative reduction in the combined end point of cardiovascular death or congestive heart failure (CHF) hospitalization in a series of related studies.

The results from the series of studies, all under the name Candesartan in Heart failure-Assessment of Reduction in Mortality and morbidity (CHARM), were presented here on August 31st at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2003.

Marc Pfeffer, MD, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and senior physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, said at an ESC press conference that the CHARM trials are the largest trial of patients with symptomatic heart failure and the first trials to assess the efficacy of an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) in combination with an ACE inhibitor.

The ARB-ACE combination was assessed in the CHARM-added trial that enrolled 2,548 patients with ejection fraction (EF) of 40% or less. In that trial, patients were randomized to candesartan or placebo plus an ACE inhibitor.

In the CHARM-alternative trial, 2,028 patients who were ACE-inhibitor intolerant were randomized to candesartan or placebo. In the CHARM preserved trial, 3,025 patients with or without an ACE inhibitor were randomized to candesartan or placebo.

In all study arms, candesartan was given "on top of standard therapy that included beta blockers, diuretics, digoxin, spironolactone and calcium antagonists," said Karl Swedberg, MD, professor of medicine, G