Blood Pressure Drug May Slow Progress of Kidney Disease
From Times staff and wire reports
Treatments with a drug designed to lower blood pressure can prevent a variety of kidney problems from getting worse, European researchers reported in the April 11 New England Journal of Medicine. Their study was undertaken because a class of blood pressure drugs known as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors slowed the development of kidney failure in people with diabetes.
The three-year experiment involved 583 volunteers from 49 European hospitals. All had various types of kidney disease. Three hundred got an inhibitor called benazepril, while the rest received a placebo. Only 10% of those receiving benazepril required dialysis, compared to 20% of those receiving a placebo.
