THURSDAY, Dec. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Combined doses of telmisartan and ramipril are effective at preventing strokes and lowering blood pressure in stroke-prone rats, researchers report in the November-December issue of the Journal of the American Society of Hypertension.
Ying Zhou, M.D., of the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and colleagues randomly assigned 25 spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats to five groups: a control group, a telmisartan group, a ramipril group, a full-dose telmisartan + ramipril group, and a half-dose telmisartan + ramipril group. Full doses of telmisartan were 1 mg/kg/day and full doses of ramipril were 0.4 mg/kg/day. The rats were fed a high-salt diet for eight weeks and the animals were monitored daily for behavioral signs of stroke.
Strokes occurred in 83 percent of the control group and 56 percent of those in the ramipril group but in none of the telmisartan groups. Systolic blood pressure was lower in all treatment groups than in the control group and lowest in the combined telmisartan/ramipril group. Measures of urinary protein excretion and renal damage scores were lower in the telmisartan groups and lowest in the combined therapy group.
"The findings of the present study indicate that telmisartan is highly effective in controlling stroke and that addition of ramipril may further enhance the target-organ protection that can be accomplished," the authors conclude.
This study was supported by a grant from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG.
Abstract
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