Frequency of Prescription of Enalapriland Risk Associated with Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are the most commonly prescribed drugs for hypertension. ACE inhibitors stop angiotensin I from becoming angiotensin II, preventing its action. When they are associated with Non Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) their antihypertensive effect decreases. Inefficacy, usually asymptomatic, is the result. The aim of the present study is to assess a sample of elderly patients with chronic prescription of enalapril and associated medicines, to study the frequency of potential interactions due to the concomitant use of NSAIDs and to find out which one of these is mostly prescribed. An observational, cross-sectional study was carried out during April and May 2012 within a population of patients of 65 to 75 yr old under chronic treatments and assisted by the public health care system. Drug interactions were detected with Interdrug software. The processing and statistical analysis was performed with mean and standard deviation assessment for variables correlation. From a sample of 600 patients, 189 were prescribed with enalapril; in 152 enalapril had potential interaction with one or more drugs; in 97 cases interaction occurred with one or more NSAIDs (aspirin, meloxicam and diclofenac are the most commonly prescribed). It can be concluded that ACE inhibitors and NSAIDs association is frequent in elderly people and patients on both kinds of drugs should be regularly assessed to avoid major organ damage.