title: Lercanidipine is an effective and well tolerated antihypertensive drug regardless the cardiovascular risk profile: The LAURA study.
abstract: To determine whether the antihypertensive effectiveness of lercanidipine was independent of the different cardiovascular risk levels. Patients with treated or untreated mild-to-moderate essential hypertension were included in a multicentre, prospective, non-comparative, open-label study. Patients received lercanidipine (10 mg/day, uptitrated to 20 mg/day) during 6 months. A total of 3175 patients, age 63 +/- 10 years, 51% women, were included. The cardiovascular risk was low in 237 patients, medium in 1396, high in 722, and very high in 820. At baseline, blood pressure (BP) was 159.5 +/- 11.7/95.2 +/- 7.4 mmHg. BP was progressively higher according to increase in cardiovascular risk. After 6 months of treatment, BP was 136.0 +/- 9.7/79.7 +/- 6.8 mmHg. The decrease in systolic BP and diastolic BP at each follow-up visit compared with baseline was statistically significant both in the intergroup and intragroup comparisons (p < 0.001). Mean decreases of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were -18.5/-13.8 mmHg in the low risk group, -23/-15.2 mmHg in the medium risk group, -24.4/-16.1 mmHg in the high risk group, and -27.4/-17.4 mmHg in the very high risk group. Most frequent side effects were oedema (5.1%), headache (3.3%), flushes (2.5%), and asthenia (1%). Only 1.7% of patients discontinued antihypertensive medication because of adverse events. Tolerability of lercanidipine was independent of the cardiovascular risk group. Lercanidipine was effective and well-tolerated in patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension in the daily practice. The effectiveness and safety of the drug were independent of the degree of cardiovascular risk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, Spain. vbarriosa@meditex.es
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Barrios
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Escobar
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barrios
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Navarro-Cid
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Calderón
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004095:Dihydropyridines / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents; D004095:Dihydropyridines; C060343:lercanidipine