Efficacy and safety evaluation of perindopril–lercanidipine combined therapy in patients with mild essential hypertension

To investigate the efficacy and safety of perindopril-lercanidipine combination versus perindopril or lercanidipine monotherapies in patients with mild essential hypertension.A total of 180 patients with mild essential hypertension were randomly assigned to three groups: group A (perindopril 2 mg plus lercanidipine 5 mg; n = 60), group B (lercanidipine 10 mg; n = 60) and group C (perindopril 4 mg; n = 60). The treatment efficacy and the incidence of adverse events were evaluated at the end of 4, 8 and 12 weeks after treatment initiation.The blood pressure in group A was already lower than in group B and group C at week 4 after treatment initiation. Systolic blood pressure was 148 ± 13 mmHg in group A, 151 ± 14 mmHg in group B, and 153 ± 13 in group C (p 0.001); diastolic blood pressure was 89 ± 8, 92 ± 7 and 92 ± 6 mmHg, respectively (p 0.001). At the end of treatment the normalization rate was significantly higher in group A, compared with group B and group C (71.7%, 68.3%, and 48.3%, respectively; p 0.05). Four adverse events were observed in group A, while seven and nineteen adverse events occurred in group B and in group C, respectively. Statistically significant differences in adverse reaction incidence were reported among three groups.Although its results were collected in an overall limited number of patients in a single center, this study shows that the combination of perindopril and lercanidipine, compared with lercanidipine alone or perindopril alone, was effective in improving blood pressure in mild essential hypertensive patients, and also decreased the incidence of adverse events.