A Meta-analysis of antihypertensive effect of telmisartan versus candesartan in patients with essential hypertension

Objective: The comparison of antihypertensive effects between telmisartan and candesartan in patients with essential hypertension has been investigated in several small studies. The results were not consistent. We performed this meta-analysis determining the antihypertensive effect of telmisartan versus candesartan in these patients. Methods: We searched Pubmed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Central for all published studies comparing the antihypertensive effects between telmisartan and candesartan in patients with essential hypertension. Results: The antihypertensive effects were assessed in 302 patients included in 4 trials with a mean follow-up of 10 ± 4 weeks. There were no significant differences between telmisartan and candesartan in reduction of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) in patients with essential hypertension (weighted mean differences (WMD) for SBP 1.98 mm Hg (95% confidence interval (CI), −0.53, 4.49), p > 0.05; WMD for DBP 0.26 mm Hg (95% CI, −1.65, 2.16), p > 0.05), respectively. In a sub-analysis including 2 randomized studies, there was not a significant difference for the reduction of SBP (WMD 0.90 (95% CI, −2.88, 4.68) mm Hg, p > 0.05) or DBP (WMD −0.80 (95% CI, −3.40, 1.81) mm Hg, p > 0.05) treated with telmisartan or candesartan. Conclusions: This meta-analysis provides the evidence that the antihypertensive effects of telmisartan and candesartan are similar on SBP and DBP reduction in patients with essential hypertension, suggesting that strict designed randomized controlled trial would be helpful to compare antihypertensive effects of angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) and improve the choice of ARBs in antihypertensive therapy

Yixintongmai Inhibits Proliferation and Migration and Promotes Apoptosis of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells Cultured with High Glucose

Objective. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of yixintongmai on proliferation, migration, and apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) cultured with high glucose. Methods. VSMCs of the thoracic aorta from 5- to 8-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were cultured with normal (4.5 mM) or high (25 mM) glucose, respectively. The concentration of yixintongmai powder at 360 μg/ml was chosen according to pre-experimental results. Results. Yixintongmai inhibited the proliferation of VSMCs (CCK-8 assay: 0.75 ± 0.04 versus 0.98 ± 0.09 OD, P<0.001; cell counting: 37533 ± 1861 versus 56009 ± 3779 cells/well, P<0.001) and the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (0.74 ± 0.08 fold, P<0.001) as compared with high glucose (HG). Yixintongmai inhibited the migration of VSMCs (transwell assay: 146 ± 16 versus 265 ± 62 cells; P<0.001), scratch wound assay (0.17 ± 0.01 fold, P<0.001), and the expression of matrix metalloproteinases-9 (0.87 ± 0.03 fold, P<0.001) as compared with HG. Yixintongmai decreased mitochondrial membrane potentials (0.36 ± 0.12 fold, P<0.001) and promoted early (2.11 ± 0.20 fold, P<0.01) and late (2.11 ± 0.28 fold, P<0.01) apoptosis of VSMCs as compared with HG. Yixintongmai inhibited the expression of B-cell lymphoma 2 (0.83 ± 0.07 fold, P<0.01) and stimulated the activity of cleaved-capase-3/caspase-3 (2.00 ± 0.12 fold, P<0.05) as compared with HG. Yixintongmai inhibited reactive oxygen species generation (0.46 ± 0.03 fold, P<0.01) and the expression of NADPH oxidase-1 (0.84 ± 0.04 fold, P<0.001), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) p65 (0.71 ± 0.07 fold, P<0.001), phosphorylated NF-κB p65 (0.39 ± 0.02 fold, P < 0.0001), and inhibited nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65 (0.87 ± 0.03 fold, P<0.001) in VSMCs as compared with HG. Conclusions. Yixintongmai inhibits the proliferation and migration and promotes the apoptosis of VSMCs cultured with HG, which suggests the potential anti-atherosclerotic effects of this traditional Chinese medicine

Liraglutide reduces systolic blood pressure in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A meta-analysis of randomized trials

The antidiabetic effect of liraglutide in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus has been explored in several trials. We performed this meta-analysis determining the effects of liraglutide on blood pressure in these patients. Three electronic databases (Pubmed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Central) were searched for all published articles evaluating the effects of liraglutide on blood pressure in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Total 968 patients were included in 10 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials with a follow-up of 16 ± 9 weeks. Liraglutide 1.8 mg/day reduced systolic blood pressure (weighted mean differences −5.39 (95% confidence interval, −7.26, −3.51) mm Hg, p .05). The increases of heart rate were greater than placebo in patients treated with liraglutide 1.8 mg/day (weighted mean differences 6.03 (95% confidence interval, 4.78, 7.29) kg, p < .001). There was no significant correlation between reduction of systolic blood pressure and weight loss in patients treated with liraglutide 1.8 mg/day (p = .24). In conclusion, liraglutide reduces systolic blood pressure and body weight in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. These data suggest the beneficial effects of liraglutide on cardiovascular protection and may improve prognosis in these patients

Effects of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents on heart failure patients with anemia: a meta-analysis

Introduction: Heart failure (HF) is always complicated with anemia and is associated with bad prognosis in this patient population. Several studies have assessed the potential role of erythropoietin-stimulating agent (ESA) in improving cardiac function and reducing the number of hospitalizations in anemic patients with HF. Aim : We performed a meta-analysis to assess the potential role of ESA in the treatment of anemic patients with HF. Material and methods : A literature and Medline search was performed to identify studies with control groups that examined the efficacy of ESA therapy in patients with HF and anemia. Results: A total of 11 studies were included (n = 3044 subjects) in the final analysis. Compared to placebo, ESA therapy was associated with increased hemoglobin levels (1.89 g/dl; 95% CI: 1.64–2.14, p < 0.00001), increased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) to 6.88 (95% CI: 0.49–13.28, p = 0.03), decreased B-type natriuretic protein (–272.20; 95% CI: (–444.52)–(–99.89), p = 0.002), improvement in New York Heart Association functional class to –0.33 mean difference (95% CI: (–0.44)–(–0.23), p < 0.00001), and decreased hospitalization (OR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.39–0.94, p = 0.02). There was no significant between-group difference in all-cause mortality (OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.51–1.21, p = 0.27). Conclusions : The treatment of anemia with ESA therapy did not reduce the rate of all-cause mortality among patients with heart failure, but ESA therapy made a potential important contribution to patients’ symptomatic improvement

Long-term Outcomes of Drug-eluting versus Bare-metal stent for ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction

Background: Long-term outcomes of drug-eluting stents (DES) versus bare-metal stents (BMS) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remain uncertain. Objective: To investigate long-term outcomes of drug-eluting stents (DES) versus bare-metal stents (BMS) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods: We performed search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane library, and ISI Web of Science (until February 2013) for randomized trials comparing more than 12-month efficacy or safety of DES with BMS in patients with STEMI. Pooled estimate was presented with risk ratio (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) using random-effects model. Results: Ten trials with 7,592 participants with STEMI were included. The overall results showed that there was no significant difference in the incidence of all-cause death and definite/probable stent thrombosis between DES and BMS at long-term follow-up. Patients receiving DES implantation appeared to have a lower 1-year incidence of recurrent myocardial infarction than those receiving BMS (RR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.56 to 1.00, p= 0.05). Moreover, the risk of target vessel revascularization (TVR) after receiving DES was consistently lowered during long-term observation (all p< 0.01). In subgroup analysis, the use of everolimus-eluting stents (EES) was associated with reduced risk of stent thrombosis in STEMI patients (RR = 0.37, p=0.02). Conclusions: DES did not increase the risk of stent thrombosis in patients with STEMI compared with BMS. Moreover, the use of DES did lower long-term risk of repeat revascularization and might decrease the occurrence of reinfarction

Are medical record front page data suitable for risk adjustment in hospital performance measurement? Development and validation of a risk model of in-hospital mortality after acute myocardial infarction

Objectives To develop a model of in-hospital mortality using medical record front page (MRFP) data and assess its validity in case-mix standardisation by comparison with a model developed using the complete medical record data.Design A nationally representative retrospective study.Setting Representative hospitals in China, covering 161 hospitals in modelling cohort and 156 hospitals in validation cohort.Participants Representative patients admitted for acute myocardial infarction. 8370 patients in modelling cohort and 9704 patients in validation cohort.Primary outcome measures In-hospital mortality, which was defined explicitly as death that occurred during hospitalisation, and the hospital-level risk standardised mortality rate (RSMR).Results A total of 14 variables were included in the model predicting in-hospital mortality based on MRFP data, with the area under receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.78 among modelling cohort and 0.79 among validation cohort. The median of absolute difference between the hospital RSMR predicted by hierarchical generalised linear models established based on MRFP data and complete medical record data, which was built as ‘reference model’, was 0.08% (10th and 90th percentiles: −1.8% and 1.6%). In the regression model comparing the RSMR between two models, the slope and intercept of the regression equation is 0.90 and 0.007 in modelling cohort, while 0.85 and 0.010 in validation cohort, which indicated that the evaluation capability from two models were very similar.Conclusions The models based on MRFP data showed good discrimination and calibration capability, as well as similar risk prediction effect in comparison with the model based on complete medical record data, which proved that MRFP data could be suitable for risk adjustment in hospital performance measurement