Efficacy and Tolerability of Irbesartan in Patients With Mild to Moderate Essential Hypertension

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of irbesartan by comparing the antihypertensive effect and safety of irbesartan with enalapril. Me thods: 229 patients with mild to moderate hypertension, having not been treated with antihypertensive medicine before, were randomly divided into two groups. One gro up was treated with irbesartan 150～300mg/d(irbesartan group), the other gr oup w ith enalapril 5～10mg/d(enalapril group)for 8 weeks.Sitting blood pressure and l aboratory examination of the patients were observed at baseline and post-treatme nt. Adverse reactions were recorded.Results: Effective rate was 84.3% in irbesartan group and 69.3% in enalapril group(P0.05).There was no significant difference in response rates between two groups. The addition of diuretic was required in 26.96% of patients on irbesartan group and 54.38% of p atients on enalapril group.At the end of 8 weeks SeSBP/SeDBP was decreased in two gr oups.The decreace of SeDBP was more significant at the end of 2,4,6 and 8 weeks in irbesatan group than that in enalapril group. Conclusion:Irbesartan 150～300mg/d is as effective as and much more tolerated than enalapril 5～10mg/d in patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension.