Carvedilol and Micro T-Wave Alternans in Hypertensives With Chronic Kidney Disease

Carvedilol and Micro T-Wave Alternans in Hypertensives With Chronic Kidney Disease

Evaluate effectiveness of Carvedilol CR on Micro T-Wave Alternans in high risk hypertensives

The effect of Carvedilol CR on Micro T-Wave Alternans will be assessed in 30 hypertensives with stage 4 or 5 chronic kidney disease utilizing a cross-over design and contrasting no treatment against active treatment periods of 8 weeks.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adults age 18 and older
• Chronic kidney disease
• Must be able to do stress test

Exclusion Criteria:

• Must not be mentally disabled
• Unable to provide informed consent
• Unable or unwilling to comply with study protocol or procedures
• Pregnancy or unknown pregnancy status in female of childbearing potential
• Participation in any drug trial during the study period
• Prior enrollment in this study
• Active liver disease
• Currently on β-blocker medication at the time of enrollment
• Known history of asthma exacerbation with β-blocker therapy
• Second or third degree AV nodal block or bradycardia with resting heart rate <50 bpm
• Prior allograft organ transplantation
• Planned allograft transplantation reasonably foreseen within the active treatment period
• Electrocardiographic left or right bundle branch block
• Permanent implanted pacemaker
• Atrial fibrillation
• Ongoing treatment with any of the following medications: sotalol (Betapace), azimilide (Stedicor), quinidine (Quinidex), disopyramide (Norpace), dofetilide (Tikosyn), ibutilide (Corvert), procainamide (Procanbid), bepridil (Vascor), amiodarone (Cordarone), clarithromycin (Biaxin), erythromycin (Eryc), halofantrine (Halfan), pentamidine (Pentam), sparfloxacin (Zagam), domperidone (Motilium), droperidol (Inapsine), chlorpromazine (Thorazine), haloperidol (Haldol), mesoridazine (Serentil), thioridazine (Mellaril), pimozide (Orap), arsenic trioxide (Trisenox), cisapride (Propulsid), lidoflazine (Clinium), and methadone (Dolophine)