Eprosartan Prevents Secondary Stroke Better, Study Says

According to a study conducted at St. JosefsHospital, Cloppenburg, Germany, the angiotensinreceptor blocker eprosartan proved moreeffective at preventing secondary stroke inpatients than the calcium antagonist nitrendipine,although the 2 showed equal effectiveness atreducing overall blood pressure. The study included1405 patients who had suffered a transientischemic attack or stroke in the past 2 years,and who randomly received both medicationsand were monitored for an average of 2.5 years.

In both groups, normotensive blood pressurereadings were reached within 3 monthsof treatment. During the follow-up period,there were 461 cases of a cardiovascular orcerebrovascular event or death. Of thosecases, 206 were from the eprosartan group,and 255 from the nitrendipine group. Analysisconfirmed that eprosartan was associatedwith a lower incidence of cardiovascular andrecurrent cerebrovascular events thannitrendipine.