Perindopril-based blood pressure-lowering therapy reduces amino-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide in individuals with cerebrovascular disease

What Was Tested

Researchers studied BNP (Nesiritide) in the context of low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The plasma amino-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) level predicted congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, and ischaemic stroke in participants of the Perindopril Protection Against Recurrent Stroke Study (PROGRESS), a placebo-controlled study of the effects of blood pressure lowering on cardiovascular events among individuals with cerebrovascular disease.

Active treatment comprised a flexible regimen based on perindopril, with the addition of indapamide at the discretion of treating physicians.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 357 participants were involved.

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

The researchers measured NT-proBNP and other cardiovascular risk factors at randomization and after 13 months of therapy in a subset of 357 PROGRESS participants.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and placebo-controlled.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got BNP (Nesiritide) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with BNP (Nesiritide) could be set against what happens without it.

The timeline in the abstract includes 13 months.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antihypertensive Agents, Biomarkers, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain and Peptide Fragments.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of BNP (Nesiritide) in 357 participants in people with low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension over 13 months.

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

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2007 (Journal of hypertension), a journal based in Netherlands.

More context: the BNP (Nesiritide) compound page, Low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension research.