Effects of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, angiotensin II receptor antagonist and calcium antagonist on urinary podocytes in patients with IgA nephropathy.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Verapamil.

The aim of the present study is to assess whether verapamil, trandolapril and candesartan cilexetil affect proteinuria and urinary podocytes in patients with IgA nephropathy.

Why It Was Studied

The urinary podocyte is postulated to be a marker for estimation of the severity of active glomerular injury and a predictor of disease progression in children with glomerulonephritis.

Twenty patients with diffuse mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (non-IgA PGN) and 20 healthy controls were also included in this study.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 32 patients were involved.

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

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Verapamil study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Some patients received a placebo instead of Verapamil, giving a reference point.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, Benzimidazoles, Biphenyl Compounds, Calcium Channel Blockers, Glomerular Mesangium and Glomerulonephritis, IGA.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Verapamil in 32 patients.

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.

The publication is from 2000 (American journal of nephrology), a journal based in Switzerland.

More context: all human trials.