The Diabetes Subgroup Baseline Characteristics of the Avoiding Cardiovascular Events Through Combination Therapy in Patients Living With Systolic Hypertension (ACCOMPLISH) Trial

The Avoiding Cardiovascular Events Through Combination Therapy in Patients Living With Systolic Hypertension (ACCOMPLISH) trial is the first cardiovascular outcome trial designed to compare initial use of 2 different fixed‐dose antihypertensive regimens, benazepril plus hydrochlorothiazide vs benazepril plus amlodipine, on cardiovascular end points in hypertensive patients at high cardiovascular risk secondary to previous major events or presence of diabetes mellitus (DM). Of the 11,464 patients, 60.4% had DM. Compared with non‐DM patients, DM patients were less likely to have previous myocardial infarctions (15% vs 37%) or strokes (8% vs 21%). Those with DM were more likely to be female (43% vs 34%), black (15% vs 8%), overweight (body mass index, 32 vs 29 kg/m 2 ). At baseline, DM patients were more likely to have the metabolic syndrome, manifested by higher levels of fasting glucose (145 vs 101 mg/dL) and triglycerides (178 vs 150 mg/dL) and slightly lower high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol values (48 vs 51 mg/dL) compared to the non‐DM cohort. Although estimated glomerular filtration rate (80 vs 76 mL/min/1.73 m 2 ) was similar in the DM and non‐DM groups, presence of both albuminuria (8.7% vs 3.5%) and microalbuminuria (29% vs 20%) were more prevalent in the DM group. After 6 months of treatment, blood pressure control rates (<140/90 mm Hg) using blinded data (both therapeutic groups combined) for DM demonstrated that 42.8% of DM patients had blood pressure levels <130/80 mm Hg. ACCOMPLISH will provide valuable guidance on optimizing treatment strategies in hypertensive patients at high cardiovascular risk with and without DM.