This failure is partly due to the fact that many patients do not strictly adhere to their drug therapy and/or they report the presence of adverse effects. Traditionally, monotherapy is used as first-line treatment to achieve BP targets; however, when this fails, combination therapy is then required. In light of the need to attain BP goals, combination therapy (especially fixed-dose) is currently recommended. The main advantages of combination
therapy over monotherapy are not only that of reduced dose, improved GSK1210151A efficacy and reduced adverse effects, but also of target protection and reduced cardiovascular (CV) risk. Therefore, the development of single-administration drug combinations should also improve patient adherence to therapy and therefore help in achieving BP control. Among the various combinations available, calcium channel blockers (CCBs) and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have been proven to be extremely effective, while also displaying good tolerability. Individually, both the third-generation CCB lercanidipine and the ACE inhibitor enalapril are effective antihypertensive p38 MAPK assay agents. In addition, both of these agents also show other beneficial effects when administered
as monotherapy. Of particular importance is the fact that when lercanidipine plus enalapril are administered in combination, they show synergism, thus providing added efficacy with reduced side effects. The present report provides an overview of the main clinical studies examining lercanidipine and enalapril administered as monotherapy, with particular focus on the potential renoprotective effects afforded by the fixed-dose combination lercanidipine-enalapril.”
“Objective-To determine whether dogs with p38 kinase assay renal failure have higher serum cardiac troponin I (cTnl) concentrations
than healthy dogs.
Design-Case-control study.
Animals-31 dogs with renal failure and 51 healthy dogs.
Procedures-Serum concentrations of creatinine and cardiac troponin 1, urine specific gravity, and systolic arterial blood pressure were measured for all dogs. Dogs underwent a standardized physical examination, and any dog with evidence of cardiovascular disease or other nonrenal disease was excluded from final analyses. Dogs were considered to be in renal failure when the serum creatinine concentration was >= 3.0 mg/dL, urine specific gravity was between 1.007 and 1.030, and renal failure had been clinically diagnosed.
Results-Dogs with renal failure had significantly higher serum cTnl concentrations (median, 0.35 ng/mL) than did healthy dogs (0.20 ng/mL). The renal failure group also had a significantly higher median systolic blood pressure (156 mm Hg) than did healthy dogs (138 mm Hg), although serum cTnl concentration was not correlated with systolic blood pressure in dogs with renal failure.