Experts specialising in hypertension and related diseases convened from 17–21 June 2005 for the 15th European Society of Hypertension (ESH) European Meeting on Hypertension. The congress centre in Milan hosted 6,150 physicians – the highest number ever for this venue.
Bayer HealthCare contributed successfully to the ESH with a satellite symposium and a booth at the industry exhibition. The satellite symposium, "Nifedipine GITS in ACTION – a tale of two targets", focused on the dual benefits of Adalat® GITS. This underlined the increasing evidence that the outstanding benefits of Adalat® GITS are due to both blood-pressure (BP) lowering and vascular-protective properties.
Ahead of the satellite symposium, Bayer HealthCare also organised a press conference with the title: "Early ACTION in hypertensive patients" to brief international journalists.
The INSIGHT study demonstrated that Adalat® GITS not only effectively controlled blood pressure but also reduced the risk of cardiovascular events by 50%. These improvements are not only related to blood-pressure lowering effects but may also be attributed to anti-atherosclerotic effects.
ACTION – the new landmark study – investigated the effect of Adalat® GITS in 7,665 patients with symptomatic stable angina with a follow-up of 5 years. The hypertensive subpopulation in ACTION experienced the greatest benefits from the addition of Adalat® GITS to best-practice therapy at the time of the study, and these results were highlighted in the Bayer HealthCare satellite symposium.
The analysis of this large subgroup (52% of the total patient population) showed that Adalat® GITS prolongs cardiovascular-event- and procedure-free survival in patients with symptomatic stable angina and hypertension: 13% reduction in CV risk when administered in addition to best-practice therapy; 38% reduction in the incidence of new overt heart failure; and a 33% reduction in the incidence of debilitating stroke.1
According to Professor Poole-Wilson, Principal Investigator of ACTION and co-chairman of the Bayer HealthCare satellite symposium, the BP-lowering properties of Adalat® GITS are likely to contribute most to these positive results, but he highlighted that the vascular-protective effects also have important roles in the clinical outcomes.
Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular events. Therefore, Professor Heagerty, President of the ESH, stated that substances like Adalat® GITS, which effectively lower BP and have additional vascular-protective effects, should be first-choice therapies for hypertensive patients.
1. Lubsen J, et al. J Hypertension 2005; 23:641–8.
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