DALLAS, June 25 —
The high blood pressure drug irbesartan delayed the recurrence of irregular heartbeats, researchers report for first time in today’s rapid access issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. The drug helped stop irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias) known as atrial fibrillation (AF).
AF is a disorder in which the two small, upper chambers of the heart quiver instead of beating effectively. Blood that isn’t pumped out may pool and clot. If a piece of clot leaves the heart and lodges in an artery to the brain, a stroke results. Irbesartan is in a class of drugs called angiotensin II antagonists, or blockers.
They are used to treat several cardiovascular disorders such as high blood pressure and heart failure. AF is considered the most common sustained heart arrhythmia, and its incidence rises with age to about 10 percent in people over age 75, says study author Concepcion Moro, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Alcala and director of the arrhythmia unit at the Ramon y Cajal hospital in Madrid, Spain.
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