The effects on glucose metabolism by the beta-blocker atenolol and the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitor trandolapril were investigated in a randomised double-blind parallel group study of patients with primary hypertension. Twenty-six patients were treated with 50-100 mg atenolol and 27 patients with 2-4 mg trandolapril o.d. Intravenous glucose tolerance tests, euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamps and serum lipid measurements were performed after 8 and 48 weeks of active treatment. After 48 weeks insulin sensitivity was reduced by 23% by atenolol while it remained unchanged during trandolapril treatment (؉0.5%, P ؍ 0.0010 for difference between treatments, ANCOVA). The effect on triglycerides (؉22% vs ؊8.5%)
Hypertensive patients still face a considerable risk of cardiovascular disease in spite of drug treatment in many studies. This may partly be explained by metabolic disturbances, both primarily linked to hypertension but also secondarily influenced by anti-hypertensive drugs themselves. In order to evaluate residual cardiovascular risk factors we investigated 1915 treated hypertensives (912 males, 1003 females) attending 128 health centres from all parts of Sweden. Mean blood pressure was 148/91 mmHg for males and 151/90 for females, but a substantial proportion of all patients were not well controlled, having a diastolic blood pressures > or = 100 mmHg (17% males, 12% females). Total cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol were 6.03 and 1.25 mmol l-1 for males, and 6.40 and 1.50 for females. The corresponding figures for serum triglycerides were 2.03 and 1.72 mmol l-1, respectively. In all, 38% of the hypertensives had hypercholesterolaemia (> or = 6.5 mmol l-1) and 27% hypertriglyceridaemia (> or = 2.3 mmol l-1). The lipid/lipoprotein findings may also be influenced by the various anti-hypertensive drugs used in Sweden. The prevalence of smoking and diabetes mellitus were 25% and 11% for men, and for women 24% and 9%. In conclusion, Swedish hypertensives show evidence of significant residual cardiovascular risk factors in spite of treatment. This may be of importance for future relative and absolute cardiovascular risk. It is time to re-evaluate the effectiveness of our management and care of hypertensive patients.
When erythromycin (ERY) is co-administrated with the antiepileptic carbamazepine (CBZ), a drug interaction may cause an increase in CBZ plasma concentrations, which can result in CBZ related toxic symptoms. This cross-over study was designated to investigate whether ERY influences the pharmacokinetics of the new antiepileptic oxcarbazepine (OXC) and its metabolites. In 8 healthy volunteers there were no significant differences in AUC, peak plasma concentrations or time to peak concentration when OXC was administered either with or without ERY. The results of this study suggest that OXC may offer an important advantage over CBZ especially when concomitant therapy with ERY is required.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.