Conditions: Essential Hypertension
Keywords: Essential hypertension blood pressure edema valsartan amlodipine combination treatment
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 1183
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This study was designed to compare the efficacy, tolerability, and safety of the combination valsartan/amlodipine 160/5 mg versus amlodipine 10 mg in patients with essential hypertension not adequately controlled (defined as mean sitting systolic blood pressure \[msSBP\] ≥ 130 mmHg and ≤ 160 mmHg) on amlodipine 5 mg alone. The study evaluated both the efficacy and tolerability of the treatments by providing data that assessed blood pressure and the proportion of patients developing peripheral edema.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: Twelve (12) weeks treatment with the combination of valsartan/amlodipine 160/5 mg. Together with the active medication, patients received a placebo that matched amlodipine 5 mg. The three capsules were taken by mouth with water once daily in the morning, regardless of meals. Patients were instructed not to take their study medication the morning of their study visits. Instead, they brought the study medication with them to the site and took it there as instructed by the investigator. arm 2: Eight (8) weeks of treatment with amlodipine 10 mg (two 5 mg capsules). Together with the active medication, the patients received a placebo that matched valsartan 160 mg. At Week 8, patients were switched and treated with the combination of valsartan/amlodipine 160/5 mg and a placebo that matched amlodipine 5 mg for an additional 4 weeks until the end of the study. The three capsules were taken by mouth with water once daily in the morning, regardless of meals. Patients were instructed not to take their study medication the morning of their study visits. Instead, they brought the study medication with them to the site and took it there as instructed by the investigator.

Interventions: intervention 1: Valsartan 160 mg capsules intervention 2: Amlodipine 5 mg capsules intervention 3: placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: None intervention 2: None intervention 3: capsules

Protocol document: