Drug Combo May Lower Diabetics' Kidney Risk

Filed in archive Research on February 19, 2009

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A two-drug combination of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor perindopril and the diuretic indapamide, reduced the risk of kidney disease by about 20 percent in people with type 2 diabetes.

Such were the findings of researchers who analyzed data from a study that included more than 11,000 patients.

After an average follow-up of four years, patients taking the blood pressure-lowering drugs were 21 percent less likely to have kidney disease than those in the placebo group.

The researchers also found that kidney function returned to normal among some patients who had early signs of diabetes-related kidney disease before they started taking the drugs.

Even in patients who didn't have high blood pressure, the drug combination reduced the risk of kidney disease.

The above finding appears in the April issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.