Prevention of metabolic disorders with telmisartan and indapamide in a Chinese population with high-normal blood pressure

High-normal blood pressure is considered a precursor of stage 1 hypertension that is associated with metabolic disorders. This study aims to investigate whether the pharmacologic treatment of high-normal blood pressure affects metabolism, especially in abdominally obese individuals, and the pharmacoeconomics of two antihypertensive agents, telmisartan and indapamide. Subjects with high-normal blood pressure were randomly assigned to receive telmisartan, indapamide or placebo for 3 years. All the subjects were instructed to modify their lifestyle to reduce blood pressure throughout the study. A total of 221 subjects were randomly assigned to telmisartan, 213 to indapamide and 230 to placebo. After the 3-year intervention, blood pressure was lower in the telmisartan and indapamide groups ( P <0.05), FPG in the telmisartan group was lower during the first 2 years ( P <0.05) and no characteristic differences were found in those with abdominal obesity among the three groups ( P >0.05). The percentage of subjects with metabolic syndrome was significantly decreased in the telmisartan and indapamide groups ( P <0.05), but was only significantly decreased in the telmisartan group for subjects with abdominal obesity ( P <0.05). The acquisition cost for telmisartan was ~1.86 times higher than for indapamide for a similar antihypertensive effect. The intervention for high-normal blood pressure with telmisartan and indapamide appeared to be feasible and reduced the risk of metabolic syndrome. Telmisartan was more effective, whereas indapamide had better pharmacoeconomic benefits.