The National Institutes of Health Study is comparing two levels of hemoglobin A1C therapy for people with Type II diabetes. It is a $1.4MM grant and goes until the year 2009. The purpose of this study is to compare hemoglobin A1C level of less than 6, compared to that of one approximately 7.5 to see if it would reduce cardiovascular end points. The end points we are looking at are fatal heart attack, stroke and non-fatal heart attack. We are required to recruit 200 patients.

On Target Transcend is a world-wide study sponsored by Berringer Engelheim. It compares ramipril and telmisartan as well as a combination of the two in patients at high risk for cardiovascular events. We are trying to reduce cardiac morbidity and mortality. This is being done to compare ARBs to see if they are as effective as an ACE or in combination with an ACE in reducing cardiac end points. We currently have 16 patients and should reach at least 25.

CHARM is a study being sponsored by Astra Zeneca. It was for people with congestive heart failure. It had three different arms–one was for people with preserved cardiac function, some with reduced function and some simply had an ACE added to ARB to see if we could prevent congestive heart failure, hospitalization and/or death.

ALLHAT was another National Institutes of Health trial. ALLHAT stands for Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial. It was done in over 600 clinics. We had 81 patients. The total study had approximately 42,500 patients comparing four different antihypertensive medications. One of the four was chlorthalidone. The other three were in comparison to chlorthalidone to see if it would reduce cardiovascular end points.

CONVINCE is a completed study. It was a pharmaceutical company study comparing Covera with other standard-of-care antihypertensive medications, looking at time-of-day related stroke and/or heart attack in patients to see if the Covera would actually reduce the events.

A study of hypertensive medication effectiveness and tolerability. It compared losartan to whatever other antihypertensive medication was chosen. This was a four-month study to compare how well the people tolerated it as well as how effective each group was. There were 16 patients in the trial.