Antiproteinuric effects of combined antihypertensive therapies in patients with overt type 2 diabetic nephropathy.

Combined antihypertensive therapy plays a crucial role in achieving targeted blood pressure reductions and renoprotection. We therefore compared the antihypertensive and antiproteinuric effects of combined therapy with either a calcium channel blocker (CCB) plus an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) or an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) plus an ARB in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus complicated by overt nephropathy and mild to moderate hypertension. After a 12-week dietary control period, diabetic patients with mildly to moderately impaired renal function were randomly assigned to either a CCB (amlodipine 5 mg once daily) or an ACE-I (temocapril 2 mg once daily) for 12 weeks (monotherapy period).