medwireNews: Study results suggest that telmisartan use in people with concomitant type 2 diabetes and hypertension is associated with a lower incidence of dementia and ischemic stroke compared with the use of other angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs).
In their analysis of electronic health records of the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan between 1997 and 2013, the authors observed that after almost 5 years of follow-up, 2.19% of the 2280 individuals receiving telmisartan and 3.20% of the 9120 propensity score-matched individuals receiving other ARBs were diagnosed with dementia. These findings translated into a significantly lower risk in the telmisartan group, at hazard ratio (HR) of 0.72.
Yi-Chia Wei, from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taipei, Taiwan, and colleagues report similar results when the analysis was restricted to individuals without a stroke diagnosis prior to their dementia diagnosis, and when considering all-cause mortality as a competing factor, at HRs of 0.70 and 0.71, respectively.
Wei et al also add that people using telmisartan were significantly less likely to experience any ischemic stroke events than people using other ARBs, at an HR of 0.79.
“Although our results provide potential clinical evidence to show an association of telmisartan with dementia risk reduction, further studies are warranted to clarify the causal relationship of such therapy and the underlying mechanisms of action,” concludes the team in PLOS Medicine.
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