Value of perindopril in the treatment of chronic congestive heart failure. Multicenter double-blind...

Right cardiac catheterization studies have demonstrated an improvement in cardiac hemodynamics in patients with heart failure following the administration of perindopril (per): reduction in ventricular filling pressures (pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, right atrial pressure) and systemic resistance and an increase in cardiac output. The intensity and duration of these modifications were frequently insufficient after 2 mg, but were significant over 24 hours after 4 mg. A randomized, double-blind multicenter study versus placebo (pla) was conducted for 3 months, following a preinclusion period of 15 days, in 103 heart failure patients (stages II and III of the NYHA classification) treated with diuretic +/- digitalis. The following parameters were evaluated before (be), after 1 month (1m) and after 3 months (3 m) treatment: duration of stress test (DST) (sec), clinical severity score (SS), cardiothoracic ratio (CTR), serum creatinine (Cr) (mumol/l), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (mm Hg) in the supine (s) and erect (e) positions. 50 patients received per and 53 received pla; 46 patients in each group completed the double-blind period. Perindopril was administered at doses of 2 mg (n = 6) and 4 mg (n = 40). The following results were obtained: (table; see text) Three cases of acute heart failure occurred in the placebo group compared with none in the peridopril group. The efficacy of perindopril in heart failure was demonstrated by the improvement in effort capacity and severity score and by the reduction in cardiothoracic ratio. The variation in SBP and serum creatinine, in particular, reflected the good safety.