“All these patients [with heart failure] have a very active renin-angiotensin system. That's the rationale for blocking it better,” said Dr. Swedberg.
Both he and Dr. Konstam also stressed that when treating heart failure this message can probably extend to all ARBs: The highest safe dosages of all drugs in the class probably work best for heart failure patients.
The HEAAL study was sponsored by Merck, which markets losartan (Cozaar). Dr. Konstam has served as a consultant to, and received research support from, Merck. Dr. Swedberg has received research support from Merck and other drug companies, has received honoraria from AstraZeneca and Novartis, and has been a consultant to Novartis.
“If you up-titrate to 150 mg/day you're going to get better outcomes,” Dr. Marvin A. Konstam said.
Source Mitchel L. Zoler/Elsevier Global Medical News