Table I.

 Characteristics of Included Studies

Investigator	Pattern of Study	Participants	Intervention	Follow‐Up	Drop Out
Bakris 2002 7	Prospective, randomized, open‐label, blinded‐end study	426 Patients	Telmisartan 80 mg or valsartan 80 mg	8 Weeks	2 Patients
Cavlo 2004 8	Prospective, randomized, open‐label, parallel‐group study	70 Patients	Telmisartan 80 mg or valsartan 160 mg	12 Weeks	0 Patients
White 2004 9	Multicenter, double blind, double dummy, randomized, parallel group, forced titration study	490 Patients	Telmisartan 40 mg or valsartan 80 mg, then titrated to 80 mg or 160 mg, respectively	8 Weeks	36 Patients
Sharma 2007 10	Prospective, randomized, open‐label, blinded‐endpoint, multicenter study	840 Patients	Telmisartan 80 mg or valsartan 160 mg, add hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 mg	10 Weeks	97 Patients
White 2008 11	Multicenter, double blind, double dummy, randomized, parallel group study	1051 Patients	Telmisartan 80 mg or valsartan 160 mg, add hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg	6 Weeks	112 Patients
Galle 2008 12	Multicenter, double blind, double dummy, randomized, parallel group, forced titration study	885 Patients	Telmisartan 40 mg or valsartan 80 mg, then titrated to 80 mg or 160 mg, respectively	52 Weeks	31 Patients