Source: Eur Urol  |  Posted 5 years ago

By Ed Susman

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- May 23, 2006 -- A combination of antihypertensive drugs appears to help women with high blood pressure achieved their treatment goals, researchers reported here at the 21[^]st[] annual scientific meeting and exposition of the American Society of Hypertension (ASH).

In her study, Elizabeth Ofili, MD, chief of cardiology, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues enrolled 370 women with uncontrolled systolic blood pressure into the 18-week study to determine if this cohort of women could meet treatment goals of under 140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure and under 130 mm Hg systolic blood pressure for women who were type 2 diabetics.

"Overall, irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide was associated with a 22.9 mm Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure ([]P []<.001) and provided systolic blood pressure goal attainment in over 80% of a diverse population of women uncontrolled on previous antihypertensive monotherapy," Dr. Ofili said at her poster presentation on May 19[^]th[].

Although it was not a primary endpoint in the study, women on the combination treatment were also able to achieve a significant decrease in diastolic blood pressure of 10.3 mm Hg. That also reached statistical significant at the []P []<.001 level, she said.

She demonstrated that after the women were titrated to olmesartan 300 mg/hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg there were similar falls in both diastolic and systolic blood pressure among white women, African American women, Hispanic and Latina women, women <65 years of age, women >65 years of age, women with type 2 diabetes and women with the metabolic syndrome.

Even among hard-to-treat groups, substantial percentages of patients were able to reach their goals on the dual combination -- 465 of type 2 diabetics reached their goal as did 67% of African American women, 74% of Hispanic women and 80% of Caucasian women.

"Treatments were well tolerated," Dr. Ofili said. "The majority of adverse events was mild of moderate, transient and considered unrelated to study medication."

The "Irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide Blood Pressure Reductions In Diverse Patient Populations (INCLUSIVE)" trial was funded by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi-Synthelabo Partnership.

[[]Presentation title: Efficacy and Safety of Fixed Combinations of Irbesartan/Hydrochlorothiazide in Women with Uncontrolled Systolic Blood Pressure on Monotherapy in the INCLUSIVE Trial. Abstract 626[]]