NSW: Drug can cut stroke deaths by 10,000 - expert
By Judy Skatssoon, Health and Medical Writer
SYDNEY, April 9 AAP - A commonly used drug could prevent up to 10,000 stroke-relateddeaths a year if it was more widely prescribed to high-risk groups, a medical expert saidtoday.
Dr Graeme Hankey, head of the stroke unit at Royal Perth Hospital, said an overseasstudy published in the British Medical Journal this month found the drug ramipril, marketedas Tritace, reduced the risk of fatal strokes by 61 per cent.
It also cut the risk of many stroke-related disabilities in survivors by up to 40 percent, the study found.
However, this was not because of the drug's blood-pressure lowering effect for whichit was currently prescribed, Dr Hankey said.
Instead, the drug had shown an ability to suppress the production of a substance knownas Angiotensin 2, which accelerates hardening of the arteries.
Dr Hankey said because of its limited use as a blood pressure-lowering drug Tritacewas currently only being prescribed to about half the people who could benefit from it.
He said GPs should be targeting high risk candidates for stroke and prescribing themthe drug as a preventative measure.
This included people who had previously had a heart attack or stroke, people with highcholesterol, people with blood vessel disease in their legs and diabetics.
"If this treatment is given ... to a wide range of people who are at risk of stroke... if these people can be appropriately treated, whatever their blood pressure is, withthis drug by their GP, then the potential impact for the burden of stroke on the communityis really rather large," he said.
He said the findings had significant implications for Australians, with strokes thethird most common cause of death and the leading cause of disability among adults in thecountry.
He said, in addition to other preventive measures, the use of Tritace could preventat least 5,000 and up to 10,000 of Australia's 40,000 strokes a year over the next fourto five years.
Tritace's effect with relation to lowering Angiotensin 2 had also revealed a possiblenew risk factor for stroke, he said.
"It's helped us to uncover our understanding of what causes hardening of the arteriesand what causes strokes," he said.
The drug had minimal side effects with one in twenty patients likely to to experiencecoughing from it.
Tritace is available under the PBS.
AAP jjs/ldj/sb
KEYWORD: STROKE
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