Efficacy and safety of fasudil in patients with stable angina: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial.

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate the efficacy and safety of fasudil, an orally available rho kinase inhibitor, in patients with stable angina.

Background: Several small, non-placebo-controlled trials suggest that fasudil reduces myocardial ischemia in patients with stable or vasospastic angina.

Methods: In a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial, the efficacy and safety of fasudil were evaluated in stable angina patients.

Effects of ezetimibe added to on-going statin therapy on the lipid profile of hypercholesterolemic patients with diabetes mellitus or metabolic syndrome.

Objective: To conduct a post-hoc assessment of the lipid-modifying effects of adding the cholesterol absorption inhibitor, ezetimibe, to on-going statin therapy in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) or metabolic syndrome (MetS).

Research Design And Methods: This was a post-hoc analysis of data from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial designed to evaluate the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)-lowering efficacy and safety of adding ezetimibe 10 mg/day versus placebo to ongoing, open-label statin treatment for 8 weeks in hypercholesterolemic patients. Qualifying LDL-C levels and target LDL-C goals were based on National Cholesterol Education Program risk categories.

Comparative effects of candesartan cilexetil and losartan in patients with systemic hypertension. Candesartan Versus Losartan Efficacy Comparison (CANDLE) Study Group.

The antihypertensive efficacy and tolerability of the novel angiotensin-II (A-II) receptor blocker candesartan cilexetil and the prototype A-II receptor blocker, losartan, were compared in an 8-week, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, parallel-group, titration-to-effect study of 332 adults (42% women, 12% black) with systemic hypertension (sitting diastolic blood pressure [DBP] 95-114 mmHg, inclusive). In patients with a mean trough (24 +/- 3 hours after dose) sitting DBP of 90 mmHg or higher after 4 weeks of once daily administration of candesartan 16 mg or losartan 50 mg, dose was titrated up to candesartan 32 mg or losartan 100 mg once daily. The candesartan regimen was significantly more effective than the losartan regimen in reducing trough sitting DBP at week 8 (11.

Efficacy and safety of cerivastatin and pravastatin in the treatment of primary hypercholesterolemia.

In this randomized, double-blind, parallel group study, the efficacy and safety of cerivastatin (0.3 mg) and pravastatin (20 mg) were compared in 402 patients with primary hypercholesterolemia with and without documented coronary heart disease or peripheral vascular disease. After 8 weeks of treatment, cerivastatin provided significantly greater reductions than pravastatin in low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol (31.

A study of the efficacy and safety of irbesartan in combination with conventional therapy, including ACE inhibitors, in heart failure. Irbesartan Heart Failure Group.

Because heart failure therapy with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors may not be optimal, owing to persistent levels of angiotensin II occurring through incomplete blockade and alternate pathways, the benefit of adding irbesartan, an angiotensin receptor antagonist, to conventional therapy, including ACE inhibitors, was examined. In this multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 109 patients with heart failure (New York Heart Association functional class II and III) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < or = 40% received stable doses of ACE inhibitors and diuretics before and throughout the study. Irbesartan was titrated as tolerated to 150 mg once daily in all patients.

Randomized Placebo-Controlled Withdrawal Study of Amlodipine in Agina Pectoris.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the antianginal and antiischemic efficacy, safety, and the potential for tolerance or withdrawal effects of amlodipine. BACKGROUND: The slow onset of action and long half-life of amlodipine may help avoid withdrawal effects such as the exacerbation of angina and precipitation of myocardial seen with beta-blockers. METHODS: After a 2-week single-blind placebo run-in period, 226 patients with stable exertional angina pectoris were given amlodipine (starting at 5 mg day(minus sign1) and titrated to 10 mg day(minus sign1)) in a single-blind fashion for 8 weeks.

Clinical consequences of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor withdrawal in chronic heart failure: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of quinapril. The Quinapril Heart Failure Trial Investigators.

Objectives: This study was performed to assess the efficacy, safety and clinical consequences of abrupt cessation of quinapril therapy in a placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind withdrawal trial.

Background: Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor therapy has assumed a pivotal role in the treatment of chronic heart failure. Quinapril hydrochloride, a nonsulfydryl angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, has shown beneficial clinical effects in previous studies.

Blood pressure monitoring for assessing the duration of action of antihypertensive treatment.

The duration of antihypertensive action of the alpha-adrenergic blocking agent, prazosin, was studied in 12 hypertensive patients in whom twice-daily doses of this agent were found to be effective and well tolerated during a preliminary titration period. The patients then entered a cross-over phase of study. On a randomized basis, they were given prazosin either twice daily for eight weeks followed by an eight-week period in which they received the same total dose once daily (each morning), or they were given the treatment for a once-daily period followed by a twice-daily period.

Effect of antihypertensive therapy on the circadian blood pressure pattern.

This study employed 24-hour automated ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to evaluate whole-day patterns of blood pressure in age-matched groups of normotensive volunteers, untreated hypertensive patients, and hypertensive patients treated with prazosin. As would be expected, overall systolic and diastolic blood pressures were found to be lowest in the normotensive subjects and highest in the untreated hypertensive patients. The systolic and diastolic blood pressure values for patients receiving prazosin twice daily were significantly lower than in the untreated patients; they were slightly, but not significantly, higher than the values recorded for the normotensive volunteers.

Hemodynamic profiles of antianginal agents.

The 3 main classes of antianginal drugs are nitrates, beta blockers, and calcium channel blockers. Nitrates have been viewed classically as affecting myocardial demand by reducing intraventricular volume and lowering the filling pressure of the left ventricle. They have been used increasingly to improve oxygen supply in myocardial ischemia by increasing coronary blood flow and actually causing coronary vasodilatation, and by having an effect on endothelial competence.

Randomized, double-blind comparison of transdermal clonidine with oral propranolol.

The antihypertensive effect of transdermal clonidine (TC) vs. oral propranolol (OP) was evaluated in 32 patients with mild essential hypertension (mean BP 150/95 mm Hg). The protocol consisted of a 4-week pretreatment washout period, a 2- to 6-week titration, a 4-week maintenance phase, and a 1-week postwashout phase.

Effects of digitalis on the exercise electrocardiogram in normal adult subjects.

Controversy continues regarding the effects of administration of digitalis upon the exercise electrocardiogram. Thus, maximal treadmill exercise tests were performed before and two weeks after administration of 0.25 mg of digoxin daily in 15 normal subjects (documented by cardiac catheterization and coronary arteriographic studies).

Multifactor evaluation of the determinants of ischemic electrocardiographic response to maximal treadmill testing in coronary disease.

Despite widespread use of treadmill stress in the detection of coronary disease, detailed information relating the important features of coronary pathoanatomy to the ischemic response noted on the electrocardiogram is lacking. Accordingly, 91 consecutive patients undergoing graded maximal exercise tests (MEXT) who were found to have clinical stenosis (larger than or equal to 75 per cent luminal narrowing) of at least one of the three major coronary arteries on coronary arteriography were evaluated. Positive MEXT was defined as larger than or equal to 0.

Improvement of symptoms in patients with sick sinus syndrome by spontaneous development of stable atrial fibrillation.

Fifty-six patients with symptomatic chronic sinus bradycardia because of sick sinus syndrome (SSS) were followed for periods from one month to 11 years (average 3-2 years). Eleven developed stable atrial fibrillation persisting for 8 to 61 months; 52 had permanent demand pacemakers implanted before atrial fibrillation commenced. In the 11 patients with atrial fibrillation, 10 had adequate ventricular rate, 8 with rates greater than 100 beats/min requiring digoxin for rate control.

Purification of canine plasma renin by affinity chromatography.

An affinity column for the purfication of canine plasma renin was prepared using goat anti-renin (dog kidney) gammaG gloublins. The antiserum was prepared against a purified kidney renin preparation. The anti-renin globulins were coupled to cyanogen bromide activated Sepharose.