What is Telmisarta? (Micardis)

  • Telmisartan is used to treat high blood pressure.
  • It relaxes and widens your blood vessels. This reduces the pressure in your blood.
  • Telmisartan is one of a family of medicines called Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs). They are called this because they achieve their effect on your blood vessels by blocking the action of a chemical called Angiotensin II, which normally narrows your blood vessels.

 

Find out more at: 

https://patient.info/medicine/telmisartan-an-angiotensin-receptor-blocker-micardis 

https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/search?q=telmisartan

How likely is Telmisartan to help me?

Key

  • This grey face represents the number of people in the survey group.
  • This green face represents the one person in the survey group that the medicine has helped.

Research suggests:

In a group of 258 patients with heart disease, stroke or diabetes, at high risk of heart disease, Telmisartan will prevent one person  from this group (on average) from dying of heart disease, or having a heart attack or stroke, over a period of one year. 

This picture illustrates how likely it is that a person taking Telmisartan will  get this benefit.

1in258

It is not possible to tell what will happen to you as an individual.

 

Find out more about this research at

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18757085

(Tooltip - Mean age of patients in this study was 67 years. Telmisartan dose was 80 mg/day)

What are the possible risks of taking Telmisartan?

You can discuss with your health professional  the possible side effects and other risks Telmisartan might have.

Side-effects are unwanted affects that can happen to your body when taking a medicine. 

Not everyone will get side-effects. These usually improve as your body adjusts to the new medicine, but speak with your doctor or pharmacist if any of the following side-effects persist or worry you.

Here are some of the common side-effects of Telmisartan - which affect less than 1 in 10 people:

  • Feeling faint, tired, or light-headed
  • Feeling sick, tummy (abdominal) pain, indigestion, wind, diarrhoea
  • Infections and flu-like symptoms

There are other side-effects that are less common or rare. 

Find out more at https://patient.info/medicine/telmisartan-an-angiotensin-receptor-blocker-micardis#nav-4