Blood pressure goal achievement with olmesartan medoxomil-based treatment: additional analysis of the OLMEBEST study

AIMS: Guidelines recommend blood pressure (BP) in hypertensive patients should be <140 systolic BP (SBP) and <90 diastolic BP (DBP) mmHg. This analysis assessed goal rate achievement in hypertensive patients receiving olmesartan-based treatment in the OLMEBEST study. METHODS: Patients with essential hypertension (DBP ≥ 90 mmHg and <110 mmHg) received open-label olmesartan medoxomil 20 mg/day (n = 2306). After 8 weeks, patients with DBP ≥ 90 mmHg (n = 627) were randomized to 4 weeks’ double-blind treatment with olmesartan 40 mg/day monotherapy or olmesartan 20 mg/day plus hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) 12.5 mg/day. For this analysis, the numbers and proportions of patients who achieved SBP < 140 mmHg and/or DBP < 90 mmHg at the end of the 4 weeks were calculated. RESULTS: In patients who achieved DBP normalization (<90 mmHg) at week 8 (n = 1546) and continued open-label olmesartan 20 mg/day, 66.7% achieved SBP/DBP < 140/90 mmHg at Week 12. In patients who did not achieve DBP normalization at Week 8, 26.8% of those randomized to olmesartan 40 mg/day and 42.5% of those randomized to olmesartan 20 mg/day plus HCTZ 12.5 mg/day achieved a SBP/DBP < 140/90 mmHg at Week 12. CONCLUSION: Olmesartan 40 mg/day and olmesartan 20 mg/day plus HCTZ 12.5 mg/day allow substantial proportions of patients to achieve BP goals.