Unspecified intestinal malabsorption in patients treated with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers: a retrospective analysis in primary care settings.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the possible relationship between the use of Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs) or Angiotensin-Converting-Enzyme Inhibitors (ACE-i) and unspecified intestinal malabsorption (IM) within the Italian and German real-life context.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND

METHODS

a retrospective cohort of patients with a new unspecified IM diagnosis during the period 1 January 2010-31 December 2013 was extracted from Italian IMS Health Longitudinal Patient Database and German IMS Disease Analyzer. Only patients with at least one prescription of ARB or ACE-i medication during the 6 months preceding the IM diagnosis were included and then followed up for 12 months to assess treatment exposure.

RESULTS

After stratification by year and molecule, the proportion of patients experiencing an unspecified IM diagnosis on total patients receiving ARBs or ACE-i ranged from 0% to 0.14%, showing no relevant differences between molecules and no time trends.

CONCLUSIONS

this study indicates that ACE-i or ARBs were rarely associated to an unspecified IM diagnosis. No relevant difference between each specific ACE-i and ARB was highlighted.