THURSDAY, Oct. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Tadalafil (Cialis) may be an effective adjunct therapy for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a condition that is increasingly affecting older and female Americans, according to research presented this week at CHEST 2008, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, in Philadelphia.
In one study, Robyn J. Barst, M.D., of the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York and colleagues randomly assigned 405 patients to receive either tadalafil or placebo orally once daily as monotherapy or as add-on therapy to bosentan. They found that tadalafil was associated with increased 6-minute walk distance, delayed the time to clinical worsening, improved quality of life, increased cardiac output, and decreased pulmonary artery pressures and pulmonary vascular resistance.
In a second study, Adaani E. Frost, M.D., of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and colleagues analyzed 2006-2007 data on 2,977 patients enrolled in the Registry to Evaluate Early And Long-term PAH Disease Management (REVEAL) registry. They found that the patient population is increasingly older (mean age 48) and female (preponderance 4-to-1) than previously reported. Despite increasing awareness of pulmonary arterial hypertension, they also found the average time from symptoms to diagnosis has increased by 10 months.
"Efforts must be made to decrease delays between onset of symptoms and diagnosis of PAH," Frost and colleagues write.
Some authors of the first study are employed by Eli Lilly and Company, and some authors of the second study are employed by Actelion Pharmaceuticals.
Barst Abstract
Frost Abstract
