Additive antiproteinuric effect of enalapril and losartan in children with hemolytic uremic syndrome

Background

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II type 1 receptor blockers decrease postdiarrheal hemolytic uremic syndrome (D + HUS) sequelar proteinuria. However, proteinuria may persist in some patients. In nephropathies other than D + HUS, an additive antiproteinuric effect with coadministration of both drugs has been observed.

Methods

To assess such an effect in D + HUS, 17 proteinuric children were retrospectively studied. After a median period of 1 year post-acute stage (range 0.5–1.9) patients received enalapril alone for a median of 2.6 years (range 0.33–12.0) at a median dose of 0.4 mg/kg/day (range 0.2–0.56). As proteinuria persisted, losartan was added at a median dose of 1.0 mg/kg/day (range 0.5–1.5) during 2.1 years (range 0.5–5.0).

Results

The decrease in proteinuria with enalapril was 58.0 %, which was further reduced to 83.8 % from the initial value after losartan introduction. The percentage of reduction was significantly greater with the association of both drugs (p?=?0.0006) compared with the effect of enalapril exclusively (p?=?0.023). Serum potassium, glomerular filtration rate, and blood pressure remained unchanged.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that adding losartan to persisting proteinuric D + HUS children already on enalapril is safe and reduces proteinuria more effectively. Whereas this effect is associated with long-term kidney protection, it should be determined by prospective controlled studies.