Aldosterone has been implicated as one of the mediators of cardiovascular injury in various diseases. This study examines whether mineralocorticoid antagonism ameliorates or prevents the adverse cardiac effects of hypertension and aging. Male 22-wk-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were divided into two groups, 15 rats in each. One group received no treatment; the other was given eplere...

BACKGROUND Cardiac steatosis and apoptosis are key processes in diabetic cardiomyopathy, but the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated, leading to a lack of effective therapy. The mineralocorticoid receptor blocker, eplerenone, has demonstrated anti-fibrotic actions in the diabetic heart. However, its effects on the fatty-acid accumulation and apoptotic responses have not been revealed...

BACKGROUND/AIM It is well accepted that high dietary salt intake accelerates both hypertension and target organ damage. We have previously shown that eplerenone attenuates sustained elevated systolic blood pressure in Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) rats. In the present study, we investigated the role of eplerenone on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression because we suspected that epler...

Myocardial infarction (MI) initiates adaptive tissue remodeling, which is essential for heart function (such as infarct healing) but is also important for maladaptive remodeling (for example, reactive fibrosis and left ventricular dilation). The effect of aldosterone receptor antagonism on these processes was evaluated in Sprague-Dawley rats using eplerenone, a selective aldosterone receptor an...

In this pilot study we tested whether a low dose application of a mild diuretic substance such as eplerenone is beneficial in early stages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy using 23Na und 1H imaging, myometry, and clinical testing versus the glucocorticoid gold standard. Two 7-years old patients with DMD were examined on a 3T MRI system. 1H MRI and 23Na density-adapted 3-dimensional radial MRI seq...

Background—Eplerenone is known to reduce time to first hospitalization for heart failure or cardiovascular death in patients with heart failure and mild symptoms. In chronic diseases such as heart failure, characterized by repeat hospitalizations, analyzing all heart failure hospitalizations, not just the first, should give a more complete picture of treatment benefits. Methods and Results—The ...

BACKGROUND Reduction of proteinuria and blood pressure (BP) with blockers of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) impairs the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The aldosterone antagonist spironolactone has an antiproteinuric effect, but its use is limited by side effects. The present study evaluated the short-term antiproteinuric effect and safety of the selective aldosterone antagonis...

BACKGROUND In heart failure (HF), aldosterone has been implicated in the formation of reactive interstitial fibrosis, a maladaptation that contributes to left ventricular (LV) remodeling. Eplerenone is a novel selective aldosterone blocker. The present study examined the effects of long-term monotherapy with eplerenone on the progression of LV dysfunction and remodeling in dogs with chronic HF....

BACKGROUND Eplerenone is known to reduce time to first hospitalization for heart failure or cardiovascular death in patients with heart failure and mild symptoms. In chronic diseases such as heart failure, characterized by repeat hospitalizations, analyzing all heart failure hospitalizations, not just the first, should give a more complete picture of treatment benefits. METHODS AND RESULTS Th...

BACKGROUND Mineralocorticoid antagonists improve survival among patients with chronic, severe systolic heart failure and heart failure after myocardial infarction. We evaluated the effects of eplerenone in patients with chronic systolic heart failure and mild symptoms. METHODS In this randomized, double-blind trial, we randomly assigned 2737 patients with New York Heart Association class II h...