[Evaluation of the effectiveness of a cicletanine-enalapril combination in hypertensive patients].

In this multicentre controlled single blind trial the effectiveness and safety of cicletanine (100 mg/day) were compared with those of enalapril (20 mg/day) and of the combination of both drugs in the same doses in 72 patients (41 men, 31 women, mean age 64.1 +/- 8.3 years) with permanent moderate essential hypertension without severe cardiovascular complications. In the course of the trial, one patient in each of the three therapeutic groups was excluded either for insufficient effectiveness in monotherapy or for photosensitization under the combined treatment. After two months of treatment, the fall in blood pressure and the number of patients with normalized BP were similar in the groups treated with cicletanine or enalapril alone. In contrast, the cicletanine-enalapril combination produced a significantly greater fall of diastolic arterial pressure than cicletanine alone. In addition, there was a greater reduction of functional symptoms associated with arterial hypertension. Apart from the lone case of photosensitization observed with the combined treatment, only minor side-effects were encountered, including an episode of diarrhoea and a case of extrasystoles with the combination, and a case or nausea with lipothymia under cicletanine alone. There were no significant variations of biochemical values.