Ranolazine effects on exercise tolerance and angina frequency in Taiwanese stable angina: A bridging study of the CARISA randomized trial.

Background: The effectiveness of Ranolazine on chronic angina had been proved and launched in the United States. This study aimed to determine whether add-on Ranolazine could also be effective in Taiwanese population with persisting angina symptoms despite taking conventional antianginal agents.

Methods: This is a multi-center, randomized, parallel, double-blind comparative study. The endpoint is to compare the change from the baseline of the exercise treadmill test (ETT) performing duration between add-on ranolazine and placebo at week 12.

Results: 46 patients were evaluable for the efficacy and safety endpoints. The mean change from baseline in ETT duration at week 12 was increased in the treatment and control group, and their mean difference was 20.8 s. All data in the Taiwanese population was like those in the CARISA study (24.0 s). The safety evaluation revealed that patients were tolerable to the add-on ranolazine therapy. The AE incidence for both ranolazine and placebo was 34.8%. The data were comparable to the past studies despite the limited statistical power.

Conclusion: The add-on ranolazine therapy shows the potential to raise the exercise performance and tolerance of patients with chronic angina.