Aim: To study the effect a combination of enalapril and losartan on life quality in patients with congestive heart failure (HF).
Material and methods: One hundred and eighty six patients with NYHA functional classes II to IV HF were examined. The study inclusion criteria were as follows: a left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic volume of > 160 ml, a LV ejection fraction of < 35%, sinus rhythm, a cardiothoracic index of > 0.55, no history data on prior treatment with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) and/or an AT1-antagonist, a patient's written free-will consent to participate in the study. The exclusion criteria were as follows: pacemaker migration, an artificial pacemaker, high-degree block, atrial fibrillation, cerebral circulatory disorders. All the patients were divided into 4 groups and received basic therapy with cardicet, 60-120 mg/day, aspirin, 250 mg/day, furosemide, 80-440 mg/week, and digoxin, 0.25-0.5 mg/day. Group 1 comprised 60 patients who refused therapy with ACEI and/or AT1-antagonist despite that they had indications for their use and they had been convinced many times. In Group 2 (n = 82) enalapril, an ACEI, was added to the basic therapy. Its initial dose of 2.5 mg/day was given once and slowly incremented to the therapeutical one (10-20 mg/day). Group 3 patients (n = 56) on the basic therapy were additionally treated with the AT1-antagonist losartan in a daily dose of 25-50 mg. They were started on 12.5 mg a day. In group 4 the basic therapy was added by a combination of enalapril and losartan in the same doses. The follow-up was 48 weeks. The efficiency of the treatments was controlled by the personal questionnaires SF-36, Life with Heart Failure, by evaluating the magnitude of clinical HF manifestations and by estimating the total life quality inxed. The data were analyzed by assuming that all the patients received the treatments.
Results: As compared with the conventional therapy and the use of each drug alone, a combination of the ACEI enalapril and the AT1-antagonist losartan promotes a more significant increase in the satisfaction of the patients with their vital activity, in the critical rate of their self-assessment of the "internal picture" of disease, and leads to a greater improvement of the quality of their life as a whole.
Conclusion: The ICAE-AT1-antagonist combination exerts a positive impact on life quality in patients with heart failure.