Does a valsartan-based regimen compared to an amlodipine-based regimen reduce the composite cardiac endpoint in subgroups of hypertensive patients?
Valsartan and amlodipine have similar effects on composite cardiac endpoints in hypertensive patients, though sex-specific differences in efficacy and heart failure prevention may exist.
As in the whole VALUE cohort, in no subgroup of patients were there differences in the incidence of the composite cardiac endpoint with valsartan and amlodipine-based treatments, despite a greater blood pressure decrease in the amlodipine group. The only exception was sex, in which the amlodipine-based regimen was more effective than valsartan in women, but not in men, whereas the valsartan regimen was more effective in preventing cardiac failure in men than in women.
Zanchetti et al. (2006) studied this question.