Transforming growth factor beta1 and additional renoprotective effect of combination ACE inhibitor and angiotensin II receptor blocker in hypertensive subjects with minor renal abnormalities: a 24-week randomized controlled trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Losartan and Ramipril.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 17 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, both men and women.

All the hypertensives (HT) were allocated randomly to three treatment arms (17 patients for each group) and they were single-matched for age, gender, body mass index (BMI), systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

In all patients UAE, by immunonephelometric assay; circulating TGF beta1 by a solid-phase specific sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); and blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine and creatinine clearance and potassium, by routine laboratory methods, were determined after placebo treatment and 24 weeks follow-up.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

As a double-blind Losartan study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Losartan group a baseline to be compared against.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, Biomarkers, Hypertension, Renal, Kidney, Losartan and Ramipril.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Losartan and Ramipril in 17 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.

Results are reported in around 9 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2005 (Journal of hypertension), a journal based in Netherlands.

More context: all human trials.