Study shows CVD protection for Pinoys, other Asians

Majority of patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) leading to heart attack and stroke do not receive appropriate treatment for various reasons.

This was the alarm sounded by Prof. Liu Lisheng, President of the World Hypertension League during the recent 19th Great Wall-International Cardiology Congress in Beijing, China.

“Worldwide, cardiovascular disease accounts for 31.5 percent of all deaths among women and 26.8 percent of all deaths among men,” said Liu.

Local statistics also show that CVD is the leading cause of deaths in the Philippines.

Liu said common reasons for inadequate treatment include inappropriate lifestyle, low disease awareness and intolerance to proven medications such as angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.

It is an established fact that ACE inhibitors are highly cardio-protective in high-risk patients, but Asians cannot tolerate it for prolonged periods of time due to ACE-related coughing or severe itchiness of the throat.

Doctors from the region welcomed the sub-group analysis in the landmark Ongoing Telmisartan Alone and in Combination with Ramipril Global Endpoint Trial (ONTARGET).

The thorough sub-group analysis of the results shows that in high-risk Asian patients, telmisartan 80mg is as effective as, and significantly better tolerated than, ramipril 10mg in reducing the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack, stroke and hospitalization for congestive heart failure.

Telmisartan and ramipril were shown to be equally protective in both Asian and non-Asian subjects enrolled in the study. However, there were more who attained the full dose with the angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) telmisartan than the ACE inhibitor ramipril because of better tolerability, said Dr. Antonio Miguel Dans, ONTARGET coordinator for the Philippines.

“The new ONTARGET data are very important for treatment of Asian patients at risk of cardiovascular disease,” Dans said.

He added that long-term efficacy and tolerability of treatment in these patients is of prime importance to ensure that they remain on their medication and are well protected.

“Telmisartan is shown to be a very good treatment option for these high-risk patients,” Dans said.

Considered one of the most significant landmark trials of the decade, ONTARGET involved over 25,620 patients worldwide, including more than 3,000 patients from 79 centers across the Asia-Pacific region. The Philippines was actively involved in the trial.