Losartan

[Michelle Scaglione]

Hi David

I want to start my son on Losartan. He is on Enalapril 2.5mg 2 times a day.

I want to switch him to Losartan. How much does your son take? John is 51.7 killigrams. We were told to start him at 25mg. But I am worried that too much too fast would cause side effects.

Thanks Michelle

[David Feder]

Hi Michelle:
I recommend start with 12,5mg of losartan and increase the dose slowly if it's necessary.

[Michelle Scaglione]

Thanks David

Will the Losartan interact with any known medications?

I am going to give Johnny it at night 2 1/2 hours after Juven, l-arginine, and alpha lipoic acid. And 3 hours before calcium and Vit D and a multivitamin. Is this okay? I dont want to cause the medications to be ineffective.

Michelle

[David Feder]

Losartan don't have important side effect or interaction with other drugs. Your son have cardiac dysfunction or use enalapril to prevention?

[Michelle Scaglione]

We use the Enalapril for preventive. His blood pressure is normal also.

Michelle

[David Feder]

This dose is enough to prevention. It's important to measure the blood pressure. If is necessary you can increase the dose to 25mg

[Michelle Scaglione]

David

I am also giving it to him for the added possible benefit of increasing his strength which I have read in a report about DMD mice. How much is needed to try and get that affect?

Also on PPMD parents have reported that their children with DMD and low thyroid conditions are taking Synthroid and their CPK levels are lowing. Have you heard of this?

Michelle

[Michelle Scaglione]

David

Will the Losartan help the heart muscle the same way the Enanalpril would of?

Michelle

[David Feder]

In heart muscle losartan can give the same effect of enalapril.
David

[Glen]

Hi, David I read on this post that you had info on Losartan at least 6 Months ago. I think that this drug would take a long time to affect the fibrosis of muscles of humans. Is any one in Brazil using losartan in DMD and if so have there been any results?

Glen

[David Feder]

Glen: I am doctor and I use this drug to treat arterial hypertension in several patients with good results and very few side effects. My wife is pediatrician an treat several patients with DMD. She use ACE inhibitor and carvedilol to treat cardiac dysfuction in DMD. She start in few patients losartan instead of ACE inhibitor. My son start with losartan 3 months ago and until this moment we don't see any result in skeletal muscles. In heart function losartan have the same effect of ACE inhibitor.
My wife intend to start a clinical trial in Brazil as soon as possible.

[Glen]

Dr. Feder thanks for the reply.
How long will be the duration of your wife's study? In Dr. Cohn's study the mice were the equivalent of middle age in humans. It seems to me that muscle fibrosis is a long process and would take a long time to get conclusive results. What do you think?

Glen

[David Feder]

I think that we must study each drug in DMD at least one year to see any result. I think that other researchers want study losartan. In Brazil the study is less expensive and we have more patients to study.
Begin anything is very difficult and my wife is the fist step: the protocol (study design)

[Michelle Scaglione]

Dear David

I will need to put my son back on Enalapril. My sons blood pressure was fine on the Losartan but after checking with his DR. and reading up on the side effects of Losartan. I will have to take him off. He felt dizzy and complained of stomach cramping and diarrhea. I didnt realize it could be the losartan but I think it is. Can he start back on the Enalapril right away or should he wait a day or two?

Michelle

[David feder]

You can replace with enalapril now. You can try losartan another time to demonstrate that this side effects is due the drug. I never see this side effect with losartan