Enalapril Maleate and Folic Acid Tablets for Primary Prevention of Stroke in Patients With Hypertension: a Post-marketing, Double-blind, Randomized Controlled Trial.

Primary hypertension is the most important risk factor leading to cardiovascular events. Successful management of hypertension is a key to prevent these events. Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is another independent risk factor, especially for stroke. Our team's prospective nested case-control study of 39165 subjects in China showed that incidence of cardiovascular events (especially stroke) was strongly associated with plasma level of total homocysteine (tHcy). The coexistence of hypertension and HHcy dramatically increased the risk of stroke by 25 to 30 times as compared to the subjects without the two risk factors (Graham et al, 1997). Findings from previous and our studies clearly indicate that simultaneous control of hypertension and HHcy is pivotal in reducing cardiovascular events morbidity and mortality in China.

It has been well documented that folic acid is effective in lowering the level of plasma tHcy. While controversial remains on its efficacy on preventing cardiovascular events, a study done by our team: "Efficacy of folic acid supplementation in stroke prevention: a meta-analysis" (Wang et al, 2007) provide coherent evidence that folic acid supplementation can decrease the risk of stroke by 18%, and 25% in populations where folic fortification was not issued, or used for primary prevention.

C677T gene polymorphism of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) is one of the genetic determinators of plasma tHcy level. Observational studies showed that individuals with TT genotype tend to have high plasma tHcy and elevated risk of cardiovascular events (Cronin et al. 2005), and folic acid supplementation led to a remarkable reduction in plasma tHcy. In short, previous studies by others and by our team have provided strong rationale for our proposed trial as detailed below.

The hypothesis of the current study is that a combination of antihypertensive drug (e.g., enalapril) with folic acid is not only efficacious, but also is safe and highly cost-effective than antihypertensive (e.g., enalapril) used alone to prevent stroke in hypertensive patients.

This trial will enroll 20,000 patients with primary hypertension and with known MTHFR C677T genotype. Subjects will be first stratified by genotypes, and then randomly assigned to treatment groups. The study patients will be instructed to take orally enalapril 10 mg daily or enalapril/folic acid 10mg/0.8mg tablets daily for a maximum of 5 years. The follow-up is given every 3 months.