New Meds

[Guest guest]

Hi all.

I am wondering what is knowen about a new drug that has come on the

market that is susposed to do a fantastic job at protecting your

kidneys. It is called Avapro. I was put on 150mg a day then once I

was tolerating that, my Dr increased the dose to 300mg a day. Almost

as soon as it was increased to 300mg I started feeling wierd.

Several times a day I would feel like I was about to pass out and

get very hot. I also frequently got headaches. After a week or two

of this I went to my Dr and explained the symptoms. I was tested for

a variety of things like diabetes and thyroid. All test results were

normal. I decreased my dose back to 150mg a day and after several

days I was feeling normal again. After a week I increased back to

300mg and the symptoms slowing and infrequently returned. My dr. has

told me to play with the doses and splitting the 300mg into 2 pills

(150mg) once a day. I inquired about just taking 225mg a day and he

said it won't protect the kidneys as well as the 300mg.

Has anyone else taken this medication or had any problems with it? I

was told that like 1 in 100 have the same symptoms I have.

Theresa

[Guest guest]

Hi Theresa

It sounds like you might have had episodes of low blood pressure on the 300

mg dose. Those could be symptoms of low blood pressure. Avapro is just a

common blood pressure drug, one of the angiotensin II receptor blockers

(which work similarly to ACE inhibitors). All of these drugs are thought to

be somewhat renal protective, and they do lower proteinuria a bit.

I was on one or other of these drugs from 1996 until I started dialysis in

2002, and specifically on Avapro the last 3 years before dialysis and even

for a couple of years after I started dialysis. The first of that class of

drugs, losartan (brand name Cozaar) was introduced in 1995-96. There have

been many clinical trials which showed good results, but, personally, I

don't think it has been on the market long enough to know what the long term

results will be for a kidney disease which can take 20-30 years to progress

to renal failure.

Good luck with it. One nice thing about Avapro and its sister drugs is that

it's less likely to cause a cough than the ACE inhibitors.

I ended up on dialysis, but, I already had less than 50% kidney function

when I started taking this class of drugs.

Pierre

New Meds

> Hi all.

>

> I am wondering what is knowen about a new drug that has come on the

> market that is susposed to do a fantastic job at protecting your

> kidneys. It is called Avapro. I was put on 150mg a day then once I

> was tolerating that, my Dr increased the dose to 300mg a day. Almost

> as soon as it was increased to 300mg I started feeling wierd.

> Several times a day I would feel like I was about to pass out and

> get very hot. I also frequently got headaches. After a week or two

> of this I went to my Dr and explained the symptoms. I was tested for

> a variety of things like diabetes and thyroid. All test results were

> normal. I decreased my dose back to 150mg a day and after several

> days I was feeling normal again. After a week I increased back to

> 300mg and the symptoms slowing and infrequently returned. My dr. has

> told me to play with the doses and splitting the 300mg into 2 pills

> (150mg) once a day. I inquired about just taking 225mg a day and he

> said it won't protect the kidneys as well as the 300mg.

>

> Has anyone else taken this medication or had any problems with it? I

> was told that like 1 in 100 have the same symptoms I have.

>

> Theresa

>

>

>

>

>

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