Value Case Study Essay

The completion of the VALUE trial has provided more data indicating the utility of valsartan for the treatment of hypertension patients. VALUE was a large, long-term trial aimed at determining whether lowering blood pressure with a valsartan based regimen would provide a reduction in cardiac-related morbidity and mortality when compared with an amlodipine based regime. The primary endpoint of the VALUE trial was time to the first cardiac morbidity or mortality event. The trial enrolled 15,245 hypertensive patients aged 50 years or older, at high risk for coronary artery disease. Patients were randomized to either valsartan or amlodipine groups and followed for 4–6 years. Investigators were instructed to treat patients until BP was reduced to less than 140/90 mm Hg in an effort to produce equivalent BP in the treatment groups. The details of the study design are more fully described in the attached publication and have been published previously (1,2). The primary endpoint was a composite measure which included sudden cardiac death, fatal/nonfatal …show more content…
The incidence of new-onset diabetes was reduced by 23% in the valsartan arm of the study. This clear and statistically significantly result (p=0.0001) is important data for valsartan as it suggests an active positive effect of valsartan on long-term glucose metabolism. Given that diabetes greatly increases the cardiac consequences of hypertension this result should be clearly communicated to providers as a positive for valsartan.
The valsartan treatment group also displayed a reduction in heart failure compared to the amlodipine group. The difference did not reach statistical significance but the trend was more pronounce in the second half of the study when BP was more similarly controlled in both groups. This result suggests a potential cardiac benefit for