Drug Won’t Help Kidney Transplant Patients

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Chronic kidney disease will cause the kidneys to degrade and eventually fail. Though kidney transplants can help people living with chronic kidney disease, problems with the transplanted organ can also be severe. Now a new study is saying that a drug used to slow the progression of kidney disease in patients without a transplant is not effective for those with a kidney transplant.

The drug analyzed in the study is called angiotensin II blockade; the drug makes the blood vessels dilate.

Researchers gave either angiotensin II receptor blocker losartan or a placebo to 153 people who had received a kidney transplant. The participants began taking the drug or placebo three months after their transplant and continued to take them for the next five years.

The results of the study showed that…

"Contrary to what has been observed in native kidney disease, angiotensin II blockade did not demonstrate a statistically significant benefit in lessening fibrosis or terminal kidney failure from severe fibrosis,” lead researcher Hassan Ibrahim, M.D., from the University of Minnesota was quoted as saying.

Although the angiotensin II blockade did not seem to help people with kidney transplants, the drug was also found to not harm them either.

“Nevertheless, angiotensin II blockade was safe and well-tolerated," Dr. Ibrahim was quoted as saying.

So for kidney disease patients with a transplant, angiotensin II blockage is still an effective treatment. As far as individuals who have received a kidney transplant, now they know to look to other drugs.

Source: Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, January 2013