Vasodilatory shock, associated with low blood pressure and has a high mortality result for patients have been studied by an international group. Luckily, the researchers led by Cleveland Clinic discovered that a certain drug called Angiotensin 2 may be the solution to avoid mortality rate from low blood pressure patients.
According to Medical Xpress, a trial involving patients experiencing vasodilatory shock was conducted in 75 intensive care units across nine countries in North America, Australia, and Europe. The study was to discover whether is Angiotensin 2 really effective in improving the blood pressure of those people experiencing life-threatening low blood pressure.
The experiment involved 321 participants who were experiencing vasodilatory shock and had received high doses of conventional vasopressors, specifically 0.2 μg of norepinephrine per kg of body weight per minute. In which, among those are 163 patients treated with Angiotensin 2. Meanwhile, the remaining 158 patients were treated with placebo.
"It is often the case that patients reach the maximum doses of both of these drugs very soon and are no longer responding," Angiotensin 2 study co-author Ashish Khanna, MD, intensivist, and anesthesiologist in Cleveland Clinic's Center for Critical Care stated. A vasodilatory shock was then described to be the most critical time when a patient's blood pressure drops and blood vessels dilate.
Furthermore, if not responsive to high-dose vasopressors like norepinephrine and vasopressin, patients that experience vasodilatory shock is possibly set to be among those people who dies within 30 days. Khanna then explained that Angiotensin 2 is a safe and well-tolerated drug that is deemed by many to be effective against low blood pressure but isn’t proven clinically. The study was mentioned to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Med Page Today also reported that amid pending FDA approval, the Angiotensin 2 may be available as early as next year. "This is a new drug in our armamentarium to manage patients dying of catecholamine-resistant hypotension while achieving a decrease in drugs like norepinephrine and vasopressin that do more harm than good at very high doses," Khanna concluded.
Nonetheless, the study was called as the first and largest phase III randomized controlled trial of stable, synthetic human Angiotensin 2. Yet, the project was said to undergone special protocol assessment under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In short, it still needs FDA approval due to the incomplete trial design, clinical endpoints, and statistical analyses.
