Efficacy of Perindopril to Prevent Recurrence of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients With Essential Hypertension

Hypertension affects approximately 50 million individuals in the United States and approximately 1 billion individuals worldwide. As the population ages, the prevalence of hypertension is expected to increase even further unless broad and effective preventive measures are implemented. Recent data from the Framingham Heart Study suggest that individuals who are normotensive at 55 years of age have a 90% lifetime risk for developing hypertension. The relationship between blood pressure (BP) and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events is continuous, consistent, and independent of other risk factors. The higher the BP, the greater is the chance of myocardial infarction, heart failure (HF), stroke, and kidney disease. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is also a major health problem and has been described as one of two emerging cardiovascular epidemics at the turn of the century. It is the most frequent cardiac arrhythmia, affecting 5% of individuals aged \> 65 years, and it is associated with an increased risk of stroke and a doubling of all-cause mortality. The loss of effective atrial contraction may result in impaired cardiac performance, reduced exercise tolerance and congestive heart failure. In addition, patients with atrial fibrillation often have disabling palpitations. Perindopril (Coversyl) is an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor with demonstrated efficacy in controlling hypertension. There are several lines of evidence suggesting that ACE inhibition may reduce the incidence of new-onset AF as well as AF recurrences.