Effect of telmisartan on paroxysmal atrial fibrillation recurrence in hypertensive patients with normal or increased left atrial size Full Text
Clinical Cardiology, 04/27/2012
Clinical Article
Fogari R et al. – Telmisartan was more effective than amlodipine in preventing atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrences in hypertensive patients with paroxysmal AF.
Methods- The authors assigned 378 mild hypertensive outpatients in sinus rhythm, but with ≥2 episodes of AF in the previous 6 months, to 1 of 2 groups.
- Group 1 comprised patients with LAD <40 mm in females and <45 mm in males.
- Group 2 comprised patients with LAD >40 mm and <45 mm in females and >45 mm and <50 mm in males.
- In both groups, patients were randomly treated with telmisartan or amlodipine for 1 year.
- Systolic and diastolic blood pressure were similarly reduced by telmisartan and amlodipine in both groups.
- The AF recurrence rate was significantly lower in the telmisartan–treated patients than in the amlodipine–treated patients in both group 1 (12 vs 39, P < 0.01) and group 2 (40 vs 59, P < 0.05).
- Under telmisartan, the AF recurrence rate was significantly lower in group 1 than in group 2 (12.9% vs 42.1%, P < 0.05).
- Time to a first AF relapse was significantly longer with telmisartan than with amlodipine in both group 1 (176 ± 94 days vs 74 ± 61 days, P < 0.05) and group 2 (119 ± 65 days vs 38 ± 35 days, P < 0.05).
