ACE Inhibitor as Effective as More Expensive Blood Pressure Drug

ACE Inhibitor as Effective as More Expensive Blood Pressure DrugStudy focused on more than 17,000 people with coronary artery disease or diabetes | By Ed Edelson |
Posted 3/31/08

MONDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- 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. ...