Larger doses of a drug commonly used to treat high blood pressure could prolong the lives of patients suffering from chronic heart failure, researchers said today.
A five-year international study of 3,164 patients found that deaths from the condition were reduced by 8 percent when the anti-hypertensive drug lisinopril was taken at dosages more than four times greater than that usually prescribed by physicians.
The study, presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology, was sponsored by Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures lisinopril under the brand name Zestril. Lisinopril is one of a class of drugs called angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, or ACE inhibitors. They prevent the production of angiotensin, which constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure.
Researchers compared the effects of low and high doses of lisinopril. Patients who received high doses lived longer and were hospitalized less than those who received low doses, they reported.
''If you took every patient with heart failure on a low dose of an ACE inhibitor and instead treated them with a high dose, each year we would prevent 250,000 hospitalizations for heart failure,'' said Dr. Milton Packer of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
''It is very difficult to justify the continued use of low doses of ACE inhibitors in patients who could tolerate a higher dose,'' Dr. Packer said.Continue reading the main story