Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition and angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonism on postprandial endothelial function.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors and Losartan, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether endothelial dysfunction as a consequence of direct postprandial lipid response might be favorably influenced by angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin AT1 receptor antagonists.

Why It Was Studied

Postprandial triglyceride-rich lipoproteins cause endothelial dysfunction.

For angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonists this effect is as yet uncertain.

Who Took Part

The study group was 30 volunteers.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the volunteers and researchers unaware of who received Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors group a baseline to be compared against.

Each person switched between Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Endothelium-independent dilation was measured after nitroglycerine spray sublingual.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, Antihypertensive Agents, Endothelium, Vascular, Isoquinolines, Losartan, Postprandial Period and Quinapril.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors and Losartan in 30 volunteers.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1999 (Journal of the American College of Cardiology), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.