Angiotensin II receptor antagonism with telmisartan increases number of endothelial progenitor cells in normotensive patients with coronary artery disease: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Aim of this study was to evaluate whether telmisartan, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist, can modify the number of subpopulations of EPCs and may in turn affect the endothelial function of normotensive patients with CAD.

Why It Was Studied

Circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) provide an endogenous repair mechanism of the dysfunctional endothelium and therefore can play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease (CAD).

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 40 patients taking part.

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

Measurements of EPCs and assessment of flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery was performed before and after therapy.

How the Study Was Run

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

Because people in this Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers could be set against what happens without it.

The Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers, Benzimidazoles, Benzoates, Brachial Artery, Coronary Artery Disease, Endothelium, Vascular and Hypertension.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Blockers in 40 patients.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 8 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2010 (Atherosclerosis), a journal based in Ireland.

More context: all human trials.