COMPARISON OF CLINICAL BENEFITS BETWEEN TELMISARTAN AND OTHER ANGIOTENSIN RECEPTOR BLOCKERS IN HYPERTENSION PATIENTS WITH COMBINATION THERAPY: MULTICENTER REAL-WORLD STUDY

Abstract

Objective: Background Telmisartan have potent blood pressure lowering effect as well as the other pleiotrophic effects including PPAR-??/?? dual activation. In large clinical studies, telmisartan demonstrated the comparable clinical benefits with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor. However, there were few studies of direct comparison between telmisartan and the other angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). This study aimed to compare the cardiovascular and renal protective effect between telmisartan and the other ARBs in patients with the advanced hypertension who required two or more anti-hypertensive drugs. Design and method: This study used the Observation Medical Outcomes Partnership-Common Data Model database of three tertiary hospitals in Korea. 19,247 Patients were prescribed at least two antihypertensive drugs including ARBs, were selected from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2019. 3,437 patients in the telmisartan group and 15,810 patients in the other ARB group were matched 1:1 through propensity score matching. Major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE), heart failure (HF) hospitalization and new-onset dialysis were compared for 3,386 patients in each group. Result: Before the matching, there was a higher proportion of patients with a history of myocardial infarction (MI) in the telmisartan group compared to the other ARB group. After the matching, average on-treatment blood pressure was similar between two groups. Over a three-year period, the incidence of MACE and HF hospitalization did not differ significantly between the two groups. Compared to the other ARB group, the telmisartan group had a lower incidence of new-onset dialysis (1.3% vs 1.9%, p-value = 0.04). However, this difference was not statistically significant in the multivariable Cox regression model. Conclusions: Telmisartan has similar cardiovascular and renal protective effects to other ARBs in patients with advanced hypertension who are taking at least two anti-hypertensive medications. Figure. Kaplan-Meier curves showing the incidence of MACE and dialysis in the telmisartan group and the other ARB group.