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Two-Drug Combo Reduces Diabetic Kidney Damage
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 "Exciting" was a word also used by Dr. Robert Zimmerman, interim director of the Cleveland Clinic endocrinology department. "Certainly, this is pointing in the direction you want to see," he said.
Diabetes is probably the leading cause of kidney failure that leads to dialysis, Zimmerman added. "About 50 percent of dialysis is probably due to diabetes."
But he agreed with Weir that more work is necessary. "We clearly need to have more long-term data," Zimmerman said. "That would be the next stage, to see whether this truly proves to be a treatment that ought to be used more frequently."
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Drugs such as ACE inhibitors, as well as losartan, now are used to help prevent kidney damage in diabetes, he said. "What this study seems to indicate is that using a renin inhibitor is another way of blocking the pathway that is associated with the increased risk of renal disease," Zimmerman said.
"This is an important study that is likely to change my practice," said Dr. Ajay K. Singh, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of dialysis at Brigham and Womens Hospital. "Based on the results of this study, I am much more likely to use a direct renin inhibitor in addition to an angiotensin blocker in patients with Type 2 diabetes with kidney disease."
More information
Learn about diabetic kidney disease from the American Diabetes Association.
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Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 6/4/2008
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SOURCES: Matthew Weir, M.D., director, nephrology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore; Robert Zimmerman, M.D., interim director, endocrinology department, Cleveland Clinic; Ajay K. Singh, M.D., associate professor, medicine, Harvard Medical School, and director, dialysis, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; June 5, 2008, New England Journal of Medicine
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