VALSARTAN - LONG-TERM EFFICACY AND TOLERABILITY COMPARED TO LISINOPRIL IN ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH ESSENTIAL-HYPERTENSION

A total of 501 elderly patients with essential hypertension were rando mized to receive valsartan or lisinopril in this one year multicenter, double-blind, parallel group trial. Patients received valsartan 40 mg (n=334) or lisinopril 2.5 mg (n=167) daily for 2 weeks with subsequen t titration (alone or in combination with hydroclorothiazide), dependi ng on response to treatment. The primary efficacy variable was the per centage of patients with a response, defined as sitting diastolic bloo d pressure <90 mmHg or drop of greater than or equal to 10 mmHg from b aseline. A high percentage of patients responded to treatment in both valsartan and lisinopril groups: 80% for both groups at 12 weeks and 8 1% and 87%, respectively, at 52 weeks with no statistically significan t difference between treatments (12 weeks, p = 0.925; 52 weeks, p = 0. 148). More patients on lisinopril experienced drug-related cough (7.5% on valsartan, 17.4% on lisinopril). In 5.4% of lisinopril treated pat ients, cough. led to discontinuation of therapy compared to 0.6% on va lsartan. Valsartan 80 mg daily provides comparable short and long term antihypertensive efficacy to lisinopril in elderly patients with a lo wer incidence of drug-related cough.