Frequency of cough during therapy with ACE inhibitors in Greek hypertensives

Persistent dry cough is one of the most common side-effects during therapy with ACE inhibitors. The frequency of cough ranges widely (from 0.2% to 15%) in different series, being higher in small studies and smaller in retrospective studies with large number of patients. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the true frequency of cough induced by treatment with ACE inhibitors in Greek hypertensives and to determine various possibly correlated parameters, including sex, duration of therapy and kind and dose of ACE inhibitors. All hypertensive patients followed in our Hypertension Clinic and treated with ACE inhibitors participated in the study. A total of 228 patients, 103 males and 125 females, 24-80 years of age, were treated with ACE inhibitors for a period of 1-41 months: 121 with enalapril, 40 with captopril, 39 with lisinopril, 25 with perindopril and 3 with ramipril. During treatment with ACE inhibitors persistent dry cough occurred in 15 patients, 12 women and 3 men, giving a frequency of 6.58%. Eleven patients (4.82%) volunteered the information and three after questioning. The mean age of these 15 patients with cough was significantly higher from that of the group (n = 213) without cough (64.27 +/- 2.5 vs. 57.9 +/- 0.74 years, mean +/- SEM, P = 0.024). The 12 women with cough were significantly older than the 113 without cough (67.77 +/- 2.8 vs. 57.8 +/- 1.04 years, P = 0.032).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)