More About Teveten

More About Teveten

MORE ABOUT TEVETEN

Researchers are always looking for new

medications to do a better job of controlling diabetes and coping with its complications.

Last issue, VOICE Vol. 14, No. 4, we reported about a European study, in which the

Angiotensin II Receptor Antagonist medication Teveten (eprosartan mesylate), proven

beneficial in reducing hypertension (high blood pressure), appeared, much like its cousins

the ACE Inhibitors, to reduce the fluid pressure in the kidneys, and thus the rate and

severity of diabetic renal disease.

This is big news. While the ACE Inhibitors

definitely work, in some individuals they may produce a dry cough much like that from

smoking, and Teveten does not. People who cannot take the ACE inhibitors should be able to

use Teveten.

Although the study, presented at the 21st

Congress of the European Society of Cardiology, was primarily concerned with the reduction

of high blood pressure, its authors point out that more than 2.5 million Americans have

both diabetes and hypertension, and that for these people, the risk of heart disease is

four times higher. Study presenters also pointed out that an estimated 30%--75% of

diabetic complications are linked to high blood pressure.

Remember that you can have microalbuminuria

(small amounts of the protein albumin in the urine), a sign of early kidney disease, even

without elevated blood pressure. Preliminary data on Teveten suggest it has beneficial

effects on reducing urinary protein excretion in proteinuric patients, thus may be of

benefit in preserving renal function, where progressive renal disease is present. The

researchers, and Teveten's manufacturer, Unimed Pharmaceuticals, Inc., stress these renal

findings are positive but preliminary.

If you have diabetes and kidney disease, or

diabetes and hypertension, ask your doctor about Teveten. Approved by the Food and Drug

Administration in 1997 for the treatment of hypertension, it is available now.