Blood pressure control by the nifedipine GITS-telmisartan combination in patients at high cardiovascular risk: the TALENT study

Background: Guidelines on hypertension regard combinations between two antihypertensive drugs to be the most important treatment strategy. Because of the complementary mechanism of action and the evidence of cardiovascular protective effects they include the combination of a calcium antagonist and an angiotensin receptor antagonist among the priorital ones to employ. Aims: To determine in hypertensive patients at high cardiovascular risk whether combining Nifedipine GITS at low dose and telmisartan reduced ambulatory and clinic blood pressure (BP) more than the combination components, controlled BP early after treatment initiation and allowed to also obtain a better long-term BP control compared to initiating treatment with the combination components and moving to the combination later. Methods: Four hundred and five patients with a clinic SBP 135 mmHg and with diabetes, a metabolic syndrome or organ damage were randomized to once-a-day telmisartan 80 mg, nifedipine GITS 20 mg or the combination of the two drugs in a 1: 1: 2 ratio for 8 weeks in the context of a multicenter double-blind study design. Patients on monotherapy were then moved to combination treatment and all three groups were followed for an additional 16-week period. Both 24-h and clinic BP were measured before treatment and at various times during treatment. Results: In the per-protocol patients (n = 327), baseline demographic and clinical characteristics were similar between the three groups. Baseline 24-h SBP values were 136.2 ± 11.6 mmHg (mean ± SD), 137.2 ± 12.5 mmHg and 136.8 ± 11.7 mmHg in the telmisartan monotherapy, nifedipine GITS monotherapy and combination therapy, respectively. The corresponding clinic values were 151.7 ± 11.8, 151.3 ± 11.9 and 151.1 ± 11.8 mmHg, respectively. All treatments lowered 24-h SBP significantly (P < 0.0001) but combination treatment (8 weeks) reduced it significantly more than monotherapies (10.8 ± 0.8 vs. 6.6 ± 1.1 mmHg and 8.0 ± 1.2 mmHg; P = 0.001 and 0.037). Similar data were obtained for clinic SBP for which the combination showed a significantly greater BP reduction (12.6 ± 0.6 vs. 8.6 ± 0.7 mmHg and 9.3 ± 0.8 mmHg; P = 0.003 and 0.024) also after 2 weeks of treatment. Moving from monotherapy to combination therapy increased the antihypertensive effect and made both ambulatory and clinic SBP superimposable in the three groups after 16 and 24 weeks of treatment. Similar findings were obtained for DBP. Conclusion: Combination treatment with nifedipine GITS low dose and telmisartan provides a greater and earlier clinic and ambulatory BP reduction than the combination components in monotherapy. Initiating treatment with the combination did not result in any better longer term BP control compared to starting treatment with monotherapy and moving to the combination later.