ANTIHYPERTENSIVE THERAPY WITH MOXONIDINE - HIGH ACCEPTANCE OF THE IMIDAZOLINE RECEPTOR AGONIST IN A LARGE-SCALE TRIAL

In this post marketing surveillance study, the efficacy and safety of antihypertensive therapy with moxonidine were investigated in 9295 patients with essential hypertension by 1790 physicians. After a treatment period of 12 weeks, 55.0% of the patients were treated with 0.2 mg moxonidine od, 24.0% with 0.4 mg od, 18.6% with 0.2 mg bid and 2.4% of the patients with a daily dose of 0.6 mg moxonidine. Therapy with moxonidine led to a mean blood pressure decrease from 176/101 mmHg in week 0 to 148/86 mmHg in week 12. Heart rate was slightly reduced by 3 beats/min. Mean safety laboratory values were essentially unchanged except for a small reduction of uric acid, glucose, triglyceride and cholesterol. Side effects occurred in 6.9% of the patients. The assessment of quality of life by the patients demonstrated improvement at the end of the treatment period. The overall judgement by the physicians showed a very good, respectively good efficacy combined with comparable safety assessment in 89% of the patients. In conclusion, moxonidine is a new efficacious and safe antihypertensive agent.