Effects of aerobic exercise training and irbesartan on blood pressure and heart rate variability in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Angiotensin II in the context of low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Who Took Part

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

Twenty-one patients were randomly assigned to a double-blind treatment with exercise and placebo (n=11) or exercise and irbesartan (n=10).

Subjects underwent 24 h BP monitoring and 24 h electrocardiographic recording before and after the 12-week AET.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and pilot.

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

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Angiotensin II, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Angiotensin II, giving a reference point.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Angiotensin II study would be practical.

HRV was investigated using three indexes from the power spectral analysis and three indexes calculated from the time domain.

The AET program consisted of exercising on a calibrated ergocycle for 30 min three times per week.

Five patients in the placebo group were excluded during follow-up because they were not compliant.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Angiotensin II, Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers, Biphenyl Compounds, Blood Pressure, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory, Electrocardiography, Ambulatory and Exercise.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Angiotensin II in people with low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

Its findings take up roughly 3 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2008 (Canadian respiratory journal), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Angiotensin II compound page, Low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension research.