Comparison of baseline data, initial course, and management: losartan versus captopril following acute myocardial infarction (The OPTIMAAL Trial). OPTIMAAL Trial Steering Committee and Investigators. Optimal Trial in Myocardial Infarction with the Angiotensin II Antagonist Losartan.

Plain-language guide to PMID 11249900 (2001): double-blind randomized controlled trial of Captopril and Losartan in 5,477 patients.

Key Facts

PMID: 11249900
Journal: The American journal of cardiology
Year: 2001
Study type: Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Dickstein K et al. (2 authors)
DOI: 10.1016/s0002-9149(00)01500-9

What This Study Did, in Plain Language

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Captopril and Losartan in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Who Took Part

The study group was 5,477 patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

The OPTIMAAL study was a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, parallel, trial in high-risk patients who were treated early after acute myocardial infarction that compared treatment with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (captopril) and a selective angiotensin II antagonist (losartan) on survival and morbidity.

A total of 5,477 patients with heart failure during the acute phase or with a new Q-wave anterior infarction or reinfarction were recruited.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, multicenter and parallel-group study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Captopril and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Captopril, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Running at several centres spread the Captopril study over different clinics and patient groups.

The Captopril group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, Captopril, Heart Failure, Losartan, Myocardial Infarction and Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and multicenter study of Captopril and Losartan in 5,477 patients.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

The publication is from 2001 (The American journal of cardiology), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.

All human trials and studies

Source: PubMed record. This explanation is written by PeptideWhiz from the public record. For research and education only. Not medical advice; no dosing information is given.