Efficacy and tolerability of telmisartan plus amlodipine in added-risk hypertensive patients

Objectives: Added-risk hypertensive patients with co-morbidities such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome often require two or more antihypertensives to achieve blood pressure (BP) targets. The aim of this sub-analysis was to determine the efficacy and safety of telmisartan 40 or 80mg plus amlodipine 5 or 10mg in patients with hypertension, stratified according to certain criteria such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome. Methods: Patients were treated for 8 weeks with telmisartan 2080mg plus amlodipine 2.510mg. This post-hoc analysis included patients treated with higher doses, and stratified according to a number of sub-populations (age, race, diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, elevated baseline systolic BP (SBP), renal impairment). Results: Eight weeks' treatment with telmisartan plus amlodipine combinations provided consistent reductions in mean SBP/diastolic BP (DBP) across the different sub-populations, similar to the overall population. SBP/DBP reductions ranged from-13.5 to-34.7/-12.6 to-26.1mmHg and BP goal rates (<140/90mmHg) ranged from 29.8100% for the four key dose combinations of telmisartan plus amlodipine. For the highest dose combination of telmisartan 80mg plus amlodipine 10mg, SBP/DBP reduction ranged from-19.1 to-34.7/-16.4 to-22.8mmHg and goal attainment rate from 66.7% to 87.0%. Across the sub-populations, high SBP and DBP response rates were seen with combination treatment (83.397.7% and 75.095.7%, respectively, with telmisartan 80mg plus amlodipine 10mg). The combination was safe and well tolerated across all sub-populations and the incidence of peripheral oedema with telmisartan 4080mg plus amlodipine 10mg was generally lower than with A10 monotherapy. Conclusions: Despite small patient numbers in some sub-populations and the post-hoc nature of the analysis, this does show that the combination of telmisartan plus amlodipine provides an effective, safe and well-tolerated antihypertensive treatment for added-risk hypertensive patients. © 2011 Informa UK Ltd.