Assessment of cognitive function in patients with essential hypertension treated with lercanidipine

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Authors: J Tisaire-Sánchez, J Roma, Ignacio Camacho-Azcargorta, J Bueno-Gómez, J Mora-Maciá, Angel Navarro

Published Date March 2006 Volume 2006:2(4) Pages 491 - 498

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/VHRM.S

J Tisaire-Sánchez¹, J Roma², Ignacio Camacho-Azcargorta³, J Bueno-Gómez1, J Mora-Maciá⁴, Angel Navarro⁵

¹Fundación para la Investigación de la Hipertensión Arterial, Zaragoza, Spain; ²Fundació per l’Estudi de la Hipertensió Arterial als Hospitals Comarcals de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain; ³Servicio de Cardiología, Clínica San José, Valencia, Spain; ⁴Unidad de Hipertensión Arterial, Instituto Médico Tecnológico, Barcelona, Spain; ⁵Recordati España, Madrid, Spain

Objectives: The aim of this longitudinal, open-label, comparative, multicenter study was to assess cognitive function in hypertensive patients receiving mid-term treatment with lercanidipine.

Methods: Hypertensive patients aged 40 years or older were treated with lercanidipine (10 mg daily) after 7–10 days washout period. The duration of the study was 6 months. Blood pressure (BP) was measured every 4 weeks (JNC 6th report). In patients with inadequate BP control, doxazosin was added and up-titrated. At baseline and after 6 months of treatment, cognitive function was evaluated using the Spanish validated version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Trail Making Test (TMT).

Results: In the study population of 467 patients, BP decreased from 154.4/95.3 mmHg at baseline to 134.8/80.7 mmHg at 6 months. At the end of the study, 98% of patients were receiving lercanidipine, 20% an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, and 6% doxazosin. Adequate BP control was obtained in 68% of patients. The mean (standard deviation) MMSE scores improved from 32.35 (2.59) to 33.25 (2.36) (p<0.0001). Patients with good BP control scored significantly better than those with inadequate BP control (p<0.05), which was already observed at the first month.

Conclusions: The third-generation calcium channel antagonist, lercanidipine, improved cognitive function after 6 months of treatment especially in patients with good BP control, suggesting that improvements in cognitive function may be associated with a decrease in BP.

Keywords: lercanidipine, hypertension, cognitive function

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