Saving Childrens Hearts
Reported June 27, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — A drug used to treat high blood pressure may also help children with enlarged hearts due to Marfan syndrome.
Marfan syndrome is a genetic condition that causes connective tissue in the body to be abnormal. The syndrome can affect, among other parts, the heart, blood vessels, bones, tendons, cartilage and skin. One of the most life-threatening defects associated with the disease is growth of the aorta, the artery that moves oxygenated blood away from the heart to the body. However, a small preliminary study of the drug losartan (Cozaar) on 18 children with Marfan syndrome showed promising results.
Before taking losartan, the patients hearts were enlarging rapidly and not responding to other treatments — growing an average of 3.5 millimeters in diameter each year. After therapy, the average rate of growth reduced to half a millimeter per year.
While the response to therapy varied somewhat, it was exciting to see such a dramatic change in the majority of these patients, Benjamin Brooke, M.D., a research fellow in genetic medicine and surgery at Johns Hopkins, was quoted as saying.
This experience increases my belief that losartan holds great promise for treating Marfan syndrome, Harry Dietz, M.D., a professor in the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine and director of the William S. Smilow Center for Marfan Syndrome Research at Johns Hopkins, was quoted as saying. This would be the first therapy generated by basic research that revealed the molecular mechanism of this genetic disease.
SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine, 2008;358:2787-2795