Start of therapy with the angiotensin II antagonist losartan after immediate switch from pretreatment with an ACE inhibitor.

What Was Tested

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

To evaluate initial blood pressure effects of the angiotensin II antagonist losartan (L) immediately after switching from an ACE inhibitor (captopril, C).

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 6 patients taking part.

PubMed tags the participants as both men and women.

Two-phase multicentre randomized study in 177 outpatients with mild to moderate essential hypertension.

On the first day of the switch they underwent ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM).

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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

More than one site took part, so the patients came from several places.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, Antihypertensive Agents, Blood Pressure, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory, Captopril and Headache.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and multicenter study of Losartan and Captopril in 6 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 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1998 (British journal of clinical pharmacology), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.