The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7189 p349-354
16 March 2002

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The Lancet (www.thelancet.com)

ACE-inhibitors good for delaying muscle loss in elderly women

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors may halt or delay muscle loss and disability in elderly patients, according to American researchers.

Dr Graziano Onder, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, North Carolina, and colleagues assessed three-year rates of decline in both knee extensor muscle strength and walking speed in 641 women with hypertension who did not have congestive heart failure.

The researchers say that the rate of decline in knee extensor muscle strength and walking speed was lower in patients who had continuously used ACE inhibitors than in those who had taken other antihypertensive agents, either continuously or intermittently, and in those who had never taken antihypertensives.

They say that, as for patients with congestive heart failure, ACE inhibitor treatment could prevent decline in physical function and skeletal muscle strength in elderly women who have hypertension but do not have congestive heart failure.

The association between the use of ACE inhibitors and muscle strength and walking speed was independent of the occurrence of cardiovascular events, suggesting that ACE inhibitors could have a direct effect on muscle. The researchers conclude: "If these findings can be confirmed in randomised controlled trials, ACE inhibitors could not only be used as first-line treatment of older adults with hypertension, but could also be used to slow physical decline in elderly people," (Lancet 2002;359:926).