Losartan in diabetic nephropathy
Abstract
Diabetic nephropathy has become the single most important cause of end-stage renal disease in the USA, Europe and Japan. The earliest marker of incipient diabetic nephropathy is the transition of normoalbuminuria to microalbuminuria at an albumin excretion rate of 20 microg/min. Human studies in patients both with and without diabetic kidney diseases have shown that the severity of baseline proteinuria is an important predictor of the rate of loss of renal function. Moreover, the reduction in protein excretion rate when patients with nephropathies are being treated with antihypertensive agents predicts the efficacy of subsequent renoprotection. Experimental and clinical observations provide the rationale for targeting the renin-angiotensin system as a renoprotective approach in diabetic and nondiabetic proteinuric nephropathies. Losartan (Cozaar, Merck Sharpe and Dohme) is a potent, orally active and highly specific angiotensin-type 1 receptor blocker. In addition to its antihypertensive efficacy, losartan decreases the left ventricular mass index in patients with hypertension, left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volume in subjects with heart failure and prevents cardiovascular morbidity and death, predominantly str...Continue Reading
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