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No benefit from antihypertensive drug seen in diabetic maculopathy
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Patients with diabetic maculopathy do not seem to benefit from short-term treatment with losartan, an angiotensin 2 receptor agonist, according to a study. A treatment course of 50 mg once daily actually increased the retinal thickness in the central macular area, the study authors concluded.
Søren Tang Knudsen and colleagues at the Aarhus Community Hospital in Denmark randomized 24 patients with type 2 diabetes and advanced diabetic maculopathy to either a 4-month course of treatment with 50 mg of losartan or placebo. The researchers evaluated the effect of treatment with losartan on macular edema and hard exudates in these patients.
Central retinal thickness increased in the losartan group, but not in the placebo group. Daytime blood pressure rates were lower in the losartan group, but there were no changes in night blood pressure in either group. No changes in the number of hard exudates, semiquantitative retinopathy grade or visual acuity occurred.
The study is published in the August issue of Journal of Internal Medicine.