The clinical uroselectivity of alfuzosin is not significantly affected by the age of patients with lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign prostatic hyperplasia

Objective To assess the effect of the age of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) on the clinical uroselectivity of alfuzosin during gener al medical practice. Patients and methods The present national, multicentre, open-labelled, obse rvational study involved 4018 Spanish outpatients with BPH, i.e. showing lo wer urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) suggestive of benign prostatic obstructio n. The patients received sustained release (SR) alfuzosin, 5 mg twice daily , for 2 months. The primary efficacy criteria were symptomatic improvements , as assessed by the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) and qualit y of life (QoL) index. Safety was assessed by monitoring cardiovascular dat a and adverse events. Results The patients were divided into four age groups, i.e. < 56, 56-65, 6 6-75 and > 75 years. All groups of patients showed a mean IPSS decrease of 11-12 (55.8-65.4% from baseline) at the end of the study, while the QoL dec reased by 2-3 points (55.6-63.6% from baseline). There were no relevant eff ects of age on the efficacy of the treatment. Moreover, alfuzosin was well tolerated independently of the age of the patient; 1.2% of the patients enr olled withdrew because of adverse events. The qualitative distribution of v asodilatory/nonvasodilatory adverse events was similar in all age groups. T he incidence of asymptomatic orthostatic hypotension was low (0.58%) and no t affected by the age of the patients. Conclusion This study confirms that the clinical uro-selectivity of SR-alfu zosin, already described in ran-domized controlled studies, is not signific antly affected in clinical practice by the age of the patients. This is con sidered particularly relevant to the characteristics of patients with BPH, as they are mostly elderly men.