A comparative evaluation of therapeutic effects of once a day dose of losartan potassium versus enalapril maleate in mild to moderate essential hypertension.

ABSTRACT

Hypertension is a major public health problem both in the developing and developed countries of the world and if untreated, can lead to various fatal complications like cerebral stroke, encephalopathy, ischaemic heart disease (IHD), renal failure and sudden cardiac death, etc. In the present study, a comparative evaluation was made between angiotensin-II receptor antagonists like losartan potassium (50 mg daily) and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors like enalapril maleate (5 mg daily) in 100 patients (50 males and 50 females having 25-50 years of age) of mild to moderate essential hypertension with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) 90-109 mmHg. Both the drugs were tried as monotherapy for their clinical efficacy, safety, tolerability and adverse effect profile in this open trial. Losartan potassium lowered the DBP to <90 mmHg in 62% of the patients at the end of 8 weeks compared to 40% in the enalapril group. Percentage of side effects with losartan was 20 and 50 with enalapril. It is concluded that both the drugs are effective antihypertensive agents and cause significant and comparable fall in systolic blood pressure (SBP) and DBP in patients of mild to moderate essential hypertension. But losartan potassium has been found to be more effective with fewer side effects when compared to enalapril maleate.