Who Undergo Electrical Cardioversion To the Editor: We read with interest the study by Madrid et al1 in a recent issue of Circulation. They investigated the role of pretreatment with amiodarone alone or combined with irbesartan in patients with long-lasting persistent atrial fibrillation, and concluded that adding irbesartan to amiodarone reduces recurrences. Nonetheless, some points should be ...

OBJECTIVE Activation of the renal renin-angiotensin system in patients with diabetes mellitus appears to contribute to the risk of nephropathy. Recently, it has been recognized than an elevation of prorenin in plasma also provides a strong indication of risk of nephropathy. This study was designed to examine renin-angiotensin system control mechanisms in the patient with diabetes mellitus. ME...

BACKGROUND Stopping the detrimental effects of the renin-angiotensin system at the most upstream point of the cascade offers theoretical advantages for cardiovascular protection. This study compares the antihypertensive efficacy and safety of the novel oral renin inhibitor aliskiren with placebo and an active comparator. METHODS AND RESULTS The study was a randomized, multicenter, double-blin...

BACKGROUND Persistence is a key factor for long-term blood pressure control, which is of high prognostic importance for patients at increased cardiovascular risk. Here we present the results of a post-marketing survey including 4769 hypertensive patients treated with irbesartan in 886 general practices in Switzerland. The goal of this survey was to evaluate the tolerance and the blood pressure ...

In this randomized, double-blind, controlled, parallel group study (ZENITH), 434 essential hypertensives with additional cardiovascular risk factors, uncontrolled by a previous monotherapy, were treated for 18 weeks with zofenopril 30 or 60 mg plus hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) 12.5 mg or irbesartan 150 or 300 mg plus HCTZ. Rate of office blood pressure (BP) response (zofenopril: 68% versus irbesa...

A strong causal link exists between psychological stress and insulin resistance as well with hypertension. Meanwhile, stress-related responses play critical roles in glucose metabolism in hypertensive patients. As clinical trials suggest that angiotensin-receptor blocker delays the onset of diabetes in hypertensive patients, we investigated the effects of irbesartan on stress-induced adipose ti...

Approximately 25% of the adult population worldwide is hypertensive and thus at risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Despite the availability of many antihypertensive drugs, at least 50% of patients do not achieve blood pressure (BP) targets and thus remain at increased cardiovascular risk. Fixed-dose (FD) irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) is an antihypertensive combination thera...

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) is a potent chemotactic agent for monocytes and other cells and is thought to be involved in atherosclerosis, recruiting monocytes to the subendothelial space or to the site of inflammation. Angiotensin II has been demonstrated, at least in animal models, to stimulate MCP-1 expression. We investigated the effect of the angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) recep...

Diabetic gastroparesis (DG) is a common clinical complication of diabetes mellitus. Leptin may cause delayed gastric emptying in the central and peripheral pathways. Microcirculatory disturbances in the stomach make gastric smooth muscles and nerves hypoxic-ischemic, thereby impairing gastric motility. Irbesartan is an angiotensin II (ATII) receptor blocker that indirectly decreases serum lepti...

A simple, accurate, precise and economical procedure for simultaneous estimation of irbesartan and hydrochlorothiazide in combined tablet dosage form has been developed utilizing concept of standard addition. The method is based upon determination of irbesartan at 234nm and hydrochlorothiazide at 272nm, in aqueous ethanol (30%v/v). Different analytical performance parameters such as linearity, ...