Combination Therapy Reduces Risk in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Combination therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) significantly lowers the risk of clinical worsening compared with monotherapy, according to new research.

Previous evidence regarding combination therapy versus monotherapy in treating PAH is conflicting.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
Is Exercise Safe For Patients with Pulmonary Hypertension?
FDA: New Options for Gout, Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To investigate the the relationship further, researchers performed a systemic review and meta-analysis of 17 randomized controlled trials (4095 patients) that assessed a combination of PAH-specific therapies against monotherapies for at least 12 weeks from January 1, 1990, to May 31, 2015.

After analyzing the data, researchers found that combination therapy significantly lowered the risk for clinical worsening versus monotherapy.

PAH-related admissions to the hospital were reduced by 29%, treatment escalation was reduced by 62%, and PAH symptomatic progression was reduced by 47%.

“Combined therapy for PAH was associated with a significant reduction in clinical worsening compared with monotherapy,” researchers concluded. “However, our study was limited by the variable definition of clinical worsening among the trials and possible publication bias. Because many patients still had clinical worsening with combination therapy, identification of innovative therapeutic targets for PAH is thus urgently needed.”

—Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Lajoie AC, Lauzière G, Lega JC, et al. Combination therapy versus monotherapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension: a meta-analysis. Lancet. Published online February 26, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(16)00027-8.