Industry Pulse
- PDF / 84,034 Bytes
- 4 Pages / 592 x 751 pts Page_size
- 73 Downloads / 178 Views
INDUSTRY PULSE
© 2005 Adis Data Information BV. All rights reserved.
Industry Pulse (Editorial Development by Adis International Limited, Italy) Contents 1. LIFE Study (Sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 2. More Hope with HOPE? (Sponsored by Sanofi-Aventis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 3. New Clinical Studies Modify NCEP ATP III Guidelines (Sponsored by Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
1. LIFE Study (Sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme) Although the LIFE (Losartan Intervention For Endpoint reduction in hypertension) study[1] has completely modified the approach to the treatment of essential hypertension, the mechanisms that account for the favourable effects of losartan on the outcome of hypertensive patients remain to be better defined. In particular, it is still unclear why, despite a comparable antihypertensive effect with atenolol, losartan is able to induce a greater reduction in the risk of developing fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events. The evidence that this protective action is even greater in patients with isolated systolic hypertension[2] allows speculation that the effect of losartan on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality may be due to an improvement in the distensibility of the large arteries rather than merely the reduction of blood pressure levels. Similarly, the finding that losartan administration in patients with atrial fibrillation is able to reduce the risk of a cardiovascular event by about 50% as compared with atenolol therapy suggests that the well documented in vitro effect of losartan to reduce platelet aggregation may account for the losartan-induced improvement of prognosis in hypertensive patients. In addition, the reduction in new diagnoses of diabetes mellitus, as well as the capability of reversing the target organ damage in the heart and in the kidney, as demonstrated by the LIFE study, can explain the ability of losartan to reduce the risk of developing cerebrovascular events. A reduction in the incidence of stroke has been documented in several large intervention trials performed, not only with losartan, but also with ACE inhibitors.[3] All these drugs share the ability to reduce the production of oxygen-free radicals, which have been demonstrated to be involved in hypertension-induced cerebrovascular damage. Moreover, the antioxidant effect of losartan may also account for the results of a substudy of LIFE, which investigated the effects of losartan- and atenolol-based treatment on
microalbuminuria in hypertensive patients and demonstrated a more marked reduction in the urine albumin excretion in the losartan group.[4] Finally, the role of oxygen-free radicals in the genesis of left ventricular hypertrophy is strongly supported by studies in transgenic mice. In parti
Data Loading...
