Combination treatment of captopril and prazosin to treat patients with gestational hypertension.

Gestational hypertensive disorder is a complication of pregnancy, which adversely affects mother-child health. Captopril and prazosin are two agents that are frequently applied for the treatment of patients with gestational hypertension. However, the cooperative efficacy of captopril and prazosin has been not investigated in a previous study. In the present study, the comprehensive treatment of captopril and prazosin for the treatment of patients with gestational hypertension was investigated. A total of 324 patients with gestational hypertension were recruited to analyze the therapeutic effects of captopril and prazosin in patients with gestational hypertension. The duration of the treatment, dose-limiting toxicities and maximum tolerated dose of captopril and prazosin were examined in this cohort. Furthermore, the levels of blood pressure and proteinuria were also examined in patients with gestational hypertension who received treatment with captopril and/or prazosin with placebo as a control. Serum levels of vasodilation-converting enzyme and α-adrenergic receptor were also examined prior to and during the 4-week post-treatment period. It was observed that the most common treatment-emergence adverse events were hypertension and proteinuria following 4-week treatments. The data revealed that captopril or prazosin treatments significantly ameliorated gestational hypertension and symptoms compared with placebo (P<0.01). Notably, the combination of captopril and prazosin treatments significantly ameliorated hypertension and proteinuria and reduced the expression levels of vasodilation-converting enzyme and α-adrenergic receptor (all P<0.01), which contributed to beneficial effects on complications and blood coagulation mechanism compared with either captopril or prazosin treatment. In conclusion, the present clinical study indicated that combination treatment of captopril and prazosin exhibited more efficient outcomes than the single agent by improving gestational hypertension, indicating that a comprehensive therapeutic regimen of captopril and prazosin may be a potential clinical opinion for patients with gestational hypertension.