Efficacy and safety of torasemide in patients with chronic heart failure

A double-blind multicenter trial was carried out to compare efficacy and safety of a maintenance treatment with 5 or 10 mg torasemide (1- isopropyl-3-([4-(3-methyl-phenyl-amino)phridine]-3-sulfonyl)urea) daily in patients who were pretreated with 40 mg furosemide for compensation of chronic congestive heart failure with oedema. Patients compensated with furosemide 40 mg for at least 4 weeks were switched over to either 5 mg torasemide (group 1) or 10 mg torasemide (group 2) once a day for 6 months. The dose could be doubled at any time, but only once during the first 4 weeks, if the efficacy was considered to be insufficient. The study lasted 24 weeks. 111 patients were statistically evaluated. 54 patients started with 5 mg torasemide, 35 of them continued on this dose till the end of the study (group 1.1). In the remaining 19 patients the dose was increased to 10 mg torasemide (group 1.2). 57 patients started with 10 mg and 42 continued on it till the end of the study (group 2.1); in 15 patients the dose was increased to 20 mg (group 2.2). Within the 4 groups body weight decreased significantly (p less than 0.05). There was no significant difference in body weight either before or after treatment between the groups that received either 5 mg or 10 mg torasemide during the whole study. 28 patients had residual oedema at the beginning of the study. In only 5 of them was this found at the end of study, 23 became free of oedema. The 83 patients without oedema remained free of oedema throughout the trial.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)