Consumer Reports Health
ACE inhibitors (ACEIs) are used by tens of millions of Americans to treat high blood pressure and heart failure, to prevent repeat heart attacks, to reverse thickening of the heart due to high blood pressure, and to prevent the decline of kidney function in people with high blood pressure and/or diabetes.
The monthly cost for ACEIs varies from less than $10 to more than $300. This report gives you information that could save you hundreds of dollars a year if you are currently taking a brand-name ACEI, and up to $3,000 or more a year if you are taking the highest-priced ACEIs.
ACEIs are effective, life-saving medicines with more than 20 years of widespread safe use. They help lower the risk of both fatal and non-fatal heart attacks and strokes, and kidney failure. And they improve quality of life. This report compares the effectiveness, safety, and cost of the 10 ACEIs.
We have selected the following five ACEIs as Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs based primarily on the evidence for their effectiveness, but also on dosing convenience and cost in treating the following conditions:
- For high blood pressure: benazepril, enalapril, and lisinopril
- For heart failure: captopril, and enalapril
- After a heart attack: lisinopril
- For diabetics: ramipril
- For people with kidney disease: benazepril, and ramipril
All of these medicines are low-cost or moderately-priced generics. All have been proven to be just as effective or superior to other ACEIs in treating the general population.
Studies have proven ramipril particularly effective in treating people who have diabetes and other heart disease risk factors, and in the prevention of kidney function decline in diabetics.
Note: The ACEIs can lower blood pressure. But studies indicate they should not be used as the initial “first-step” treatment for most people with high blood pressure who do not have heart disease, diabetes, or kidney disease. ACEIs are best used in combination with other blood pressure medicines.
This information was released and last updated in June 2009.
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