The efficacy and tolerability of an angiotensin II receptor blocker, telmisartan, in Thai patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension.

This open-labeled single-blinded study was performed to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of telmisartan in the treatment of mild to moderate essential hypertension. Each patient was assigned to take a placebo for 4 weeks followed by once daily-titrated telmisartan (40-80 mg) for 8 weeks. "Office BP" and "24-hour ambulatory BP" measurements (24-h ABPM) were recorded as scheduled. Thirty-one patients (10 males: 21 females) with a mean age of 48.1 years were enrolled. The final SBP/DBP reductions of 14.6 +/- 14.2/9.9 +/- 6.2 mm Hg were obtained. Full response defined as office DBP reduction of > or = 10 mm Hg from baseline and/or DBP < 90 mm Hg was achieved in 73.3 per cent of cases. Excluding 5 cases of white coat HT diagnosed by 24-h ABPM, full response rate (DBP reduction of > or = 10 mm Hg from baseline and/or < 85 mm Hg) was 76 per cent. Trough to peak ratio and smoothness index for SBP/DBP were highly acceptable (0.75/0.76 and 0.97/1.01, respectively). There were 4 cases of adverse events (2 cases of dizziness, 1 case of headache, and 1 case of acute myocardial infarction).