Further ASCOT data support case for amlodipine-based therapy
Patients receiving calcium channel blocker-based antihypertensive therapy are less likely to develop new-onset diabetes than those receiving beta-blocker-based therapy, according to a reanalysis of data from the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT) presented at the World
Congress of Cardiology in Barcelona this week.
Investigators found that patients who took amlodipine (with perindopril
if required) were 34 per cent less likely to develop diabetes than those
taking atenolol (with bendroflumethiazide if required). Of the 14,120
patients who did not have diabetes at the beginning of ASCOT, 1,366 patients
developed diabetes during the study — 567 (8 per cent) in the amlodipine
group and 799 (11.4 per cent) in the atenolol group. The findings are
in line with one of the study’s original conclusions (PJ, 10 September
2005, p301) that the incidence of new-onset diabetes was 30 per cent
lower in the amlodipine arm of the study.
Ajay Gupta, from the International Centre for Circulatory Health, Imperial
College London, who presented the data on behalf of the ASCOT investigators,
told The Journal that, in the original paper, the data published for
new-onset diabetes could have been the result of a number of factors,
for example, different baseline characteristics. In this analysis the
researchers adjusted the data to take into account variables such as
fasting plasma glucose, lipid profile and obesity, Dr Gupta
explained. |
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