Unspecified intestinal malabsorption in patients treated with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers: a retrospective analysis in primary care settings

Objective: To investigate the possible relationship between the use of Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs) or Angiotensin-Converting-Enzyme Inhibitors (ACE-i) and unspecified intestinal malabsorption (IM) within the Italian and German real-life context. Research design and methods: a retrospective cohort of patients with a new unspecified IM diagnosis during the period 1 January 2010–31 December 2013 was extracted from Italian IMS Health Longitudinal Patient Database and German IMS Disease Analyzer. Only patients with at least one prescription of ARB or ACE-i medication during the 6 months preceding the IM diagnosis were included and then followed up for 12 months to assess treatment exposure. Results: After stratification by year and molecule, the proportion of patients experiencing an unspecified IM diagnosis on total patients receiving ARBs or ACE-i ranged from 0% to 0.14%, showing no relevant differences between molecules and no time trends. Conclusions: this study indicates that ACE-i or ARBs were rarely associated to an unspecified IM diagnosis. No relevant difference between each specific ACE-i and ARB was highlighted.