Daniel Pella
Following the latest guidelines for the treatment of arterial hypertension risk profile assessment is essential for management of patients. The patients were stratified in the scientific program FALCO FORTE (StratiFikácia kArdiovaskulárneho rizika a Liečba hypertenzie založená na mediCíne dôkazOv - FORTE) according to newest European guidelines for arterial hypertension management and consequently the effect of three months therapy with fixed combination of perindopril arginine with indapamide was assessed. The objective of the scientific program FALCO FORTE was to demonstrate that above mentioned fixed combination therapy is safe and effective in the whole group of patients irrespective of cardiovascular risk. Systolic blood pressure decreased statistically significantly from 156.89 ± 13.74 mmHg to 132.32 ± 10.63 mm Hg (p < 0.00001) and diastolic blood pressure from 94.86 ± 8,17 mmHg to 81.34 ± 6.33 mm Hg (p < 0.00001) in the whole group of patients (n = 2, 327) after 3 months of therapy. Statistically significant decrease of heart rate from 75.50 ± 9.22/min. to 71.06 ± 6.61/min. (p < 0.00001) was observed as well. Adverse effects were very rare and mild. Moreover, no significant changes of evaluated laboratory parameters were observed during the whole study period (blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, sodium, potassium). Patients quality of life (evaluated by questionnaire method) significantly improved at the end of the study in comparison with baseline visit (p < 0.00001). In conclusion, fixed combination therapy with perindopril arginine and indapamide was equally effective and safe in patients with arterial hypertension in all categories of cardiovascular risk.